The Guardians Book 1: Magic
by Michael Phoenix
Summary: The Guardians: Magic is about a drastic change in the world after a young boy's wish. The world becomes like the books he read along with his father. Some people of the world gain powers and the abilities of Magic, others the live in a futuristic world


This book is dedicated to:

_Mom,_

_Dad,_

_And to the real D and J,_

_Who are all inspirations to my imagination._

**Chapter 0**

**Heroes of the Past**

**Heroes of the Past**

By Ted Knowles

July 28, 2101

In the past, we knew them as heroes. We never knew where they came from and they did not care. They helped keep them, the normal people, safe from harm. Eight legendary beings with powers and abilities people could only dream of having. Each held the power of an element capable of stopping whatever bad person or disaster came their way. The people would watch in awe as they stopped planes from crashing, buildings from collapsing, and crooks from hurting people. We called them Guardians because that is what they seemed like to us, Guardian Angels.

One of them possibly was an actual angel. He stretched his white wings as he flew high into the sky his hands covered in flames as he threw fireballs at escaping bank robbers' cars. There was a muscular man with a weird arm that looked reptilian and wings to match on one side of him. A red-haired beauty that sparked and frizzed as though electricity poured from her body flew next to him on his other side. If you were on the other side of town, you would see a blue haired girl with a person made of smoke combining water and cold air to make ice and snow at the park for kids to enjoy on a hot day. On the news at night, you would catch live coverage of a fire in progress. On the screen would be a young blonde-haired female with parts of her body covered in machinery. She wore a white dress while moving faster than light itself and pulling people out of the building. With her was a man who looked like he could pass for the fire throwing youth's twin. He was using a black colored magic to suppress the flames. The fire department would arrive and thank them. The young man would not say anything as he walked away but the girl would say "no problem" and then run behind him. It was rare to catch the green haired girl out unless it was something that destroyed plant life. She would wave her hand and the plants would return greener than ever. If she could catch a camera recording her, she would walk over and yell at the camera about how people are harming nature and the hippies would rejoice.

The kids would keep clippings from the newspaper. They would try to catch the heroes while they were talking to the police giving reports on what happened to get autographs.

If they were lucky and wanted it bad enough, they could get an autograph from all of them except one from the dark magic using teen. One lucky gothic kid got one from him. You had to make sure you brought recycled paper to get the signature of the green haired girl. Even if they were not fighting crimes, you could see them receive awards from the mayor, president, or Green Peace. They had fan clubs they would visit along with schools where they would talk to kids about following their dreams. They shone in everyone eyes.

Then the day came where two of them were fighting against the other five. It looked as though a disagreement was going on between the dark magic using Guardian and the fire using one. The dark magic using one had the light speed blonde-haired teen on his side, while the others sided with the fire Guardian. The fight lasted an entire day. When it seemed as though it was a draw, the fire Guardian put forth a bright light that seemed to light the heavens themselves. The Dark Guardian and the Light Guardian retreated into what looked like a puff of dark smoke. The destruction to the area around them was extensive and even though they had fixed it, the government and many people started to fear them. They had seen the amount of power they possessed during the fight. They started putting restrictions on them. They limited their flying around and having them under surveillance at all times. They continued to help even through the prejudice that they were enduring.

Then one day while they were stopping a terrorist attack on a plane, they all disappeared in a flash of light. The flight crashed into the sea and lives were lost. The media blew it out of proportion saying that The Guardians had let the plane crash on purpose. Anti-Guardian memorabilia went up everywhere. Posters, clothes, even television ads went up and slaughtered the name of the missing heroes.

Crime increased and terrorist attacks led to wars. Large banners and posters went up. Written on them in bold print was "Where are the Guardians?" That catastrophe was the last we saw of them. No one knew who The Guardians' secret identities were if they even had one. When the war was finally over negative media about the Guardians started to resurface. The military was the biggest promoter of it. They started saying 'we don't need their help.' More wars started and all but those who always wished they returned soon forgot The Guardians. We once called them heroes.

**Chapter 1 **

**The Wish Felt Around the World**

War ravaged our world in the beginning of the Twenty-second century. All because of differences in major world religions millions have died worldwide, families torn apart by deaths and separation. New York, Paris, London, Hong Kong, Cairo, and Los Angeles wiped off the map and uninhabitable because of radiation. All from nuclear weapons, the enemy should not have had in their possession. Even on American land, troops from invading countries were fighting against American soldiers and pushing the military to its limit. Acts of terrorism such as car bombs and suicide bombs were common in the supposedly safe zones. People everywhere were losing hope because of the constant loss of family and friends. They needed a miracle to end the war.

They did not know that hope was on the way that would bring the end of the war. They did not know that the world was about to change in a way they had never imagined. They did not know that this change would alter the world both mentally and geographically. This change would not come from the soldiers or their leaders. It would not come from their weapons of mass destructions.

It would not even come from an _adult_.

It would come from a kid, a young boy around eight years old with short messy black hair and brown blue eyes. He had lost his father already in the war and did not know what his mother meant when she said that daddy was not coming home. Because in his eyes his father was a super hero, a wizard, a knight, a super genius, and sometimes the king of an underwater civilization of only girls, though mom would get mad at him for saying that. His father was a master storyteller. Every night before the draft his father used to tell him stories whether from a book or ones he made up himself. When his father left his mother tried to do it for a couple of nights a week, but she was not as good. He would stay awake after his mom had told him bedtime and wait hoping for his father to come in and tell him a story as he used to before he left, but he never came. Before he went to sleep at night, he prayed to the Lord and wished on the stars that his dad would come back and read him a story so that together they could delve into the world of their imaginations. Months went by and the war became worse.

The night the world changed the boy and his mother was at home or the closest to home as they could get. The house they stayed at was in the northwestern part of the country in an area the government had created for people that lost their homes. It used to be all forest. The battle was getting closer to their area but there was no place for them to escape. They had moved twice now. The entire west coast of the United States was overpopulated from evacuees of the east side and leaving the country was impossible and dangerous considering numerous amounts of planes being shot down or hijacked by opposing forces. The news was on in the kitchen where his mom was and he could hear the newscaster talking.

"_We regret to bring you news of this terrible tragedy of the nuclear bombings that took place just ten minutes . . . New York, Georgia, Maryland, and Florida. I repeat . . ."_ He heard the click of the TV going off and stifled cries rang out from the kitchen.

The sound of bullets and explosives were getting louder and the yells of soldiers were getting clearer. Earlier that week his mother had put boards up covering the windows hoping the soldiers would pass it by thinking it deserted like some of the other houses on the street. The boy was looking out of a crack in the wood on his bedroom window trying to see stars; he could remember him and his parents wishing on them before he went to sleep at night. There were no stars visible tonight because of the clouds of smoke coming from the nearing battle. A loud whistling noise at first faint and then louder came from outside. It grew louder and louder until a loud earsplitting Boom. The house and the ground shook as if it experienced an earthquake. He looked through the window again and could see smoke coming from a house down the street. His mother came into his room with a look of panic on her face. She was tall with dark brown hair and gray eyes. She was once young looking but from the stress over the loss of her husband and the war wrinkles, lined parts of her face and a few grays ran through her brown hair.

"Put some clothes in a bag, hurry we are leaving right now." The boy grabbed some clothes while his mom was tossing clothes and needs into a small green suitcase. She pulled the bag over her shoulder with a blue bag that contained her stuff.

"All right, let's go," she said and reached out grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the door.

"Wait, I forgot something," he yelled, as he pulled out of his mother's grip. He ran to his dresser and grabbed a necklace off it, then ran back. It was a silver necklace with a charm of a velociraptor on it. It was his most prized possession because his father had given it to him before he left.

The two of them ran out of the house and saw two of the houses down the street burning to the ground. The Johnson's and the Akron's lived in those two houses. He hoped they were all right. The smell of smoke was heavy in the already cold air making it hard to breath. The boy looked into the air and saw a large green plane coming in the distance. They got into the car and drove toward a street to go to the intrastate going away from the fighting. They got about a little way away from their house before they had to stop in bumper- to-bumper traffic.

Feeling that all hope was lost, his mother cried out and slammed her hands against the steering wheels angrily. The boy looked at them and noticed that they were shaking.

"Are you alright Mommy?" He asked worriedly.

"I-I am fine;" his mom answered looking at him through the rearview mirror her eyes teary and red. "Just get out and come with me."

They got out and started running in the grass on the side of the highway. People on motorcycles rode by them riding around the traffic. His mother was holding his hand and running too fast for him to keep up so he kept tripping and stubbing his toes. It was after five minutes of running that they heard them. From above loud engines roared in their ears. Enemy fighter jets were zooming through the sky. Many people got out of their cars and ran into the woods. Some ran down the closest exit ramp to take cover in the stores that lined the road. He heard a man's voice yelling to take cover.

The jets started firing at the ground and in the distance; you could see cars catching fire and parts flying into the air. The sound of screams broke through the loud noise of the jets as people ran away from the road. A missile soared into a store below. His mother pulled him through the brush and into the woods on the opposite side of the road. When she thought that she was far enough away from the street, they sat down beneath a large tree. Leaning against the trunk, they could still hear the jet's guns, large explosions from missiles, and people screaming. His mother pulled him close, tears running down her face and after awhile he fell asleep.

He awakened twenty minutes later when he felt his mother lift him up and started running. He could hear voices that he could not understand in the distance. He could hear gunfire not far off from them. His mother ran not knowing where she was heading at all. Her only want was to get her son to safety. She ran until they were in a street of the town they lived in. She ran between abandoned cars some of which were still running. There were still planes fighting in the sky. The street was in flames at certain spots. The stench of something burning in the air caught her nose and made her gag. She looked around and ten feet away from her the flames of a burning body made light dance across her face. His mother held back a gag and started to cry. He could see enemy soldiers getting closer their weapons drawn. That is when _it _happened.

A loud roar filled their ears and the sky lighted up as though it was on fire. The boy looked to the sky and could see a large meteor flying through the air toward them. It was the size of a large truck and flames surrounded it while it fell downwards to the ground. It tore through two jets fighting in the sky like a knife through butter. Two other jets manage to escape with just torn wings. His mom turned and started running away from it but it was too late. When it struck the ground, the impact of the crash sent out shockwaves that crumbled the ground around it. A dusty, strong gust of air blew out all the surrounding store windows and blew his mom up high into the air like a rag doll. For a second it seemed as though they were flying. It felt both terrifying and amazing. His mom was holding him tight against her and she turned in midair so he was facing away from the ground. They landed with a hard thud, so hard that he heard a loud crack and his mom let go making him bounce off her and sending him back into the air landing a few feet away.

He got back up sore and walked over to his mom. She was not moving. Her left leg and arm was lying in an awkward position.

"Mom, please get back up." He started crying loudly.

"Do not cry, I'll be fine," his mom said as she opened her eyes, "but you have to start running away. Do not worry I will catch up to you soon. Stay away from the people with guns, do you understand."

"Mommy, I don't want to leave you," he sobbed.

"You have to go, don't worry I'll be right there. Now Go! And don't look back"

He turned to run away and stopped with a jolt. He turned and saw his mom holding him. She pulled him close to her and muscled all of her remaining strength to push him to the ground and cover him with her body. The jets that the meteor tore through crashed to the ground twenty feet away from them and blew up. A large sharp piece of medal flew into the air and sliced into his mothers back. She collapsed onto him and whispered her last word to him.

"Run."

He slipped from under her and ran away crying. He could hear soldiers behind him yelling and he ran faster but when he ran to the end of the street, he found that a large crater blocked his path. He stopped and looked down from the edge he could see a faint light coming from the middle of it through some of the rocks and debris. He heard a snap behind him and turned with excitement hoping it was help. However, when he looked all he saw was the barrel of a gun in the hands of a soldier 10 ft away.

The man said something that he could not understand and he backed away until he felt the edge of the crater.

"LEAVE ME ALONE," the boy cried out.

The man moved toward him with his gun still pointed. The boy started to cry and then he felt the ground give way underneath him and he fell into the crater. He rolled and rolled until he reached the middle he got up slowly and heard gunshots and saw the bullets hit the ground around him.

He ran toward the center of the crater. He could hear more shots around him hitting the rocks in the crater. He could see a light ahead of him getting brighter. He ran toward it and found the source. A black orb floated in air as though by magic.

He had never seen anything like it. He walked toward it and felt warm air around him. It reminded him of his parents and he remembered wishing on shooting stars with them. He grabbed the orb, closed his eyes, and wished the same wish he always wished at home. That he lived in a world like the stories his father told him. Then he wished that he could be with his parents forever. He opened his eyes and looked around hoping to see something different. Everything around him was the same. Then he heard something move behind him and turned around.

The soldier from earlier had followed him into the crater. He raised his gun and fired. At the same time, the orb burst with bright light engulfing the boy, but it did not stop there. It continued until it surrounded the street and the city. It soon engulfed the country, and then-the world.

**Chapter 2**

**The Magical World**

"That was a sad story, Miss Spirit," said a bleach blond, young boy in a green wizard hat wearing a matching cloak. He was sitting on a log that had seats carved into it with nine other children in wizard and witch hats facing a short, petite young woman who was sitting on a stump in front of them. She looked around the age of fifteen. She had medium short black hair shifted to the side so her bangs on her right side covered that side of her face; she had dark green eyes, and a pale cream-colored skin tone. She wore a dark-blue witch hat, a frilly dark-bluish white shirt, and a blue skirt with white flowers going down one side and a knee-high split on the other side. She also had a strong wooden bow leaning against the stump beside her, but no quiver or arrows were with it. They were sitting in the middle of Light Forest surrounded by tall trees that kept the sun from reaching them. Gentle breezes flowed through the forest making the leaves above them rustle and causing the occasional fallen leaf rise and skip along the forest floor.

"What happened to the little boy," asked a little girl with golden locks rubbing tears from her eyes.

"No one knows what happened to him after everything changed," replied Spirit, "in fact we didn't know about the little boy until years after it happened when stories of him started to circulate around."

"Miss Spirit, OO, OO, Miss Spirit I have a question," said a young black boy in a green hat waving his hand in the air.

"Go ahead"

"What's a car?"

"I'm not sure, myself, Anthony," she answered then continued, "I believe it's supposed to be a big broomstick surrounded by metal. No one around here knows what they look like because one hasn't existed in five hundred years in Diamond or Chaos City."

"Miss Spirit, please tell us about the other places in the world," a little boy with squinty eyes asked politely.

"Well there's Silicon Country, the technology part of the world. Then there is Hero Country where rumor has it people with strange abilities and some of the strongest people alive live there. Finally, there's supposed to be an underwater city somewhere, but it has never been found," Spirit said with a smile while she looked at the children's shocked faces and listened to their remarks.

"Wow that's so cool"

"That's incredible"

"Neat"

"What's technology?"

"Wow. You're so cool, Miss Spirit, our parents won't tell us any of this stuff."

"Yeah, they say that it's none of our business to know about the other places that are separated from us by impossible to cross deserts and jungles."

"That's because it's forbidden to give information about them," a voice said from behind Spirit. Spirit jumped up looking startled but regained her composure when she turned and looked to see who was behind her.

A young man with long black hair, light blue eyes, and dressed in silver armor was standing there. On his back was a large broadsword with magical inscriptions on it. Spirit's face turned from cream to red in one second flat.

"It is Prince Rocky," the girl with golden locks shouted.

Spirit turned to face him.

"Rocky, I thought I told you not to use a Finder Spell to visit me, considering the last time you used it was when you landed next to me while I was in the shower Brother dear," Spirit said sarcastically, her face slowly returning to its normal color.

The kids giggled from hearing this.

"And I thought Father told you not to talk about forbidden information, Lil Sis," said Prince Rocky with a smirk.

"Ok, kiddies," Spirit said to the children who were all staring at the two of them, "why don't you all go practice your water conjuring spells from yesterday, by the river." The children got up from their seats and ran across a path that would lead them out of the forest to a small stream. The crunching of dead leaves sounded loud in the quiet forest and continued until they were out of their hearing range.

"You were teaching them water spell," Rocky said with a tone of disbelief in his voice, "Do you even know how to do them?"

"I know how to do all the spells I teach them," she replied irritably and continued in an embarrassed voice, " I just can't do them."

Rocky chuckled making Spirit give him an angry glare.

"What is it that you want, Rocky?" said Spirit slightly annoyed.

"Just here to give you the invitation to my wedding." Spirit looked at her brother seriously.

"So you're going through with it," she asked him. Her voice was full of disappointment.

"Of course I am, it's for the good of the city, we will finally be able to have peace and break this feud with Chaos City and bring an end to all these wars, in addition to that I met her this morning she's pretty smart and man is she hot."

"I don't think you should go through with it," Spirit was still not smiling,

Rocky looked at her with a smile and then said, "And I don't think you should believe and tell people what Michael says, but that doesn't stop you from telling morbid stories to children. Maybe we should get you checked or something. You probably have brain damage from falling off the broom when you younger." He then turned, muttered a few words and a bright white light appeared from his hand, and then in a second he was gone.

Spirit stood alone thinking about her brothers' upcoming marriage to Chaos cities' Princess Michelle. The two cities had been at war for centuries: Diamond cities' light magic vs. their dark magic. Until recently, the two Kings came to an agreement that the two would call a permanent cease-fire if there were a marriage between the two countries of the magical area of the world. She knew that it would bring peace, but in her heart, she could not bring herself to trust the Chaos Empire or let her brother get stolen away by some hot vampire.

While still thinking about it, she started to practice her own wind magic. Ever since she was little, Spirit would start doing magic without thinking about it. Mages throughout the land knew that Spirit was the strongest wind-using magician around and wondered how someone who was so young could control the wind so well. Her father said that Spirit could control wind magic the day she was born. To her, using it came to her as natural as breathing. Unfortunately, besides some healing magic, wind magic was the only magic she could use. King Giradot her father paid the best tutors to teach her. When that did not work, the he gathered the best doctors to try to find out why she could not use any other magic. For that reason, many of the older villagers ridiculed her and thought her strange, but they would never say anything to her about it for fear of the wrath of the King or her brother.

She brought her right hand up and moved it in a slow circle. The air beneath her hands began to move and the dirt and leaves began to move in a circle. She had created a tornado the size a small child while she was thinking about her brother. More leaves on the ground rose into the tornado until it looked like a spinning bush of brown and green. She was so into her thoughts that it grew bigger and bigger soon passing her in height, until an angry thought about her brothers' marriage went into her mind and it burst sending leaves everywhere and creating a strong gust of wind knocking her off her feet.

Spirit caught herself with magic by surrounding herself in a tornado and floated inches from the ground before rising back up. She could hear laughter so she looked around but could not see anyone. She then realized that the sound had come from above her. She looked up and noticed a large fireball coming at her from above. She dodged it barely and felt a wave of scorching heat go past her before it hit the ground. When it hit the ground, it scorched the spot it hit and flames started to spread all around. She used her magic to remove the oxygen from the air and suppressed the flames with carbon dioxide. She then quickly looked up to see where the fireball had come from. On a tree branch, high above her stood a young man looking down at her.

The young man looked to be about five feet and ten inches tall, one hundred fifty pounds, he was somewhat muscular and around sixteen years' old. His hair was spiky, red, and black; he had light brown skin the color of peanut butter. He was wearing baggy black jeans with a white T-shirt and a red short-sleeve trench coat made out of what looked like a tough metallic material. He was looking at Spirit with a smile before he spoke.

"It seems like your training is paying off. You made me wonder about you for a moment when I saw you lose control."

"Michael, how long were you up in that tree listening?" Spirit asked still shakily from his attack.

"Since the beginning of the story with the children," replied Michael happily, "which you told with such skill that I got tears. I wish I had some popcorn to go with it. Your brother is right though what a morbid story. I mean they're like what eight years old."

"Really now," said Spirit thinking it over in her head before continuing, "Could you come down here for a second?"

"Sure," he said before jumping off the branch, flipping before landing on his feet with a thud. He walked over to where Spirit was standing.

"What is it that you want," he asked smoothly?

"Smack," the sound rang through the forest echoing from Spirit slapping Michael in the face.

"Owww, what was that for," shouted Michael with a big red hand print on his face.

"What is that for, you ask, you came here, spied on me without me knowing, then you attack me, and act like there is nothing is wrong with doing it? You act as though it is some ordinary thing that you do to people as if you were saying hi. You scared the crap out of me!"

"You asked me to train you," he shot back at her.

"Train me, not attack me at random, you idiot. Man, sometimes you act like such a kid."

"But in real combat you can be attacked at any ti . . .," Michael started and then Spirit covered his mouth and he stopped.

"Did no one ever tell you that a princess is always right?" she asked still covering his mouth.

"Whatever you say Madame Princess Know it all," Michael said sarcastically.

Spirit just rolled her eyes at him.

"When it comes to stories I'm not good at making them up and that's the only one I knew and they wanted to hear a story."

"Still out of all the stories I've told you, you choose that one," Michael laughed, "Maybe I should get you some Dark City clothing for your birthday."

"Ha . . . Ha, so funny," she said then stuck her tongue out at him.

Michael was not like any other person she had known. She met him years ago when she was younger. Yet he hadn't aged any since then, but she figured that was caused by puberty. He had traveled from one of the lands across the desert. Supposedly, his father was here around forty years earlier and his grandfather before that. He was a complete mystery that she wanted to get to the bottom of. Being the son of a great hero and being knowledgeable himself, the King asked Michael to help Spirit train and learn other types of magic. Michael did not see anything wrong with her only knowing wind magic. Michael told her father that he would make her the best Wind Magician of all time. Spirit when hearing these words felt fond of Michael though she would never tell him herself.

They stood around and talked about plans for her training this afternoon when a thought hit her, the children! She had sent them to the river thirty-five minutes ago. They both ran to the river to see what they were doing. All the kids were there except for one.

Little Amy, the girl with the golden locks had wondered off on her own into the woods. Spirit told the other children to stay right there and for no one to leave. She even put up a bright blue wind barrier to stop anyone from leaving the area. She and Michael then went to look for her in the direction everyone had saw her going last into the Mystical Forest.

The Diamond City and Chaos City Empires were separated by two forest and a canyon: Mystical forest (which contained regular woodland creatures and non-aggressive magical creatures, except for the dragons in the mountainous area) and Dark Woods (Which contained some of the most foul and dangerous magical creatures). If she were walking in the woods, they would find her easily but if she were using any type of magic to travel through it would pose as a problem. Spirit traveled by the air using her broom to fly above the trees, while Michael jumped from tree to tree searching for her. Michael ran into a group of fairies out collecting flowers to decorate their den. He signaled for Spirit to come down.

"Let's ask them if they've seen her," Michael told her pointing at the fairies. Spirit laughed at him.

"Fairies can't talk," she said to him.

"Yeah they can," he shot back, "you just have to know how to talk to them." Michael said. He created four balls of fire in his hand. They floated from his hand to his back, spreading out long, and then flattening out like a pancake. They had taken the shape of four fairy wings. He moved his fiery wings back and forth and did hand movements at the fairies. The fairies looked at Michael and pointed, but kept away from him. Fairies were a cautious and shy species. A blue haired fairy with clear light blue wings broke away from the group and did it back to him. Michael looked at Spirit and moved away from her. Spirit followed him and the fairy looked uncomfortable.

"Could you back up a bit please," he told her and she gave him a weird look. "You're scaring the fairy." Spirit backed up a few feet and waited patiently.

The fairy and Michael kept beating their wings at each other. Michael turned and smiled at her.

"She ran past here a few minutes ago," he said happily.

"That means she's not far," Spirit said while looking a little relieved, "could you tell her I said Thank you."

Michael did a twirl and bowed to the fairy. Spirit snickered.

"This does not leave this forest," Michael said his cheeks red with embarrassment.

"Whatever, come on we need to hurry," Spirit laughed. Five minutes back into looking, they heard a scream just ahead of them. Spirit shot ahead of Michael by increasing the wind, which doubled her speed.

When they reached her, she was only halfway into the forest and a wolf was snarling at her. The little girl was backing up against a large tree. She tripped and fell onto her butt. Her face was red and tears were running down it. She pointed her wand at it and sparks shot out. The wolf backed up then shook its head and continued to walk toward her. It was unfazed by the sparks that were still shooting out of her wand. It was not an ordinary wolf. This wolf was jet black with red eyes. The wolf's fur had a wavy, shadowy look to it as if shadows were emanating from it. They called it a Cannis Noxus, or Dark wolf, a wolf that has dark magical powers. Spirit got to her first. She landed right in front of the girl separating the wolf from her. She grabbed her bow from around her back and pulled back its string. The air around her hand started to move and gather speed at the spot on the string that she was holding. The wind started making a visible shape. When she let go, a gust of wind in the shape of an arrow flew from it. It knocked the wolf back into a tree. It got up and shook its head. Snarling from the pain, it dodged Spirit's next arrow, and then it opened its mouth. A dark purple-blackish energy started to appear. It swirled and then started to gather into a ball. Then it made a howling sound and pointed its mouth at her and a beam of the dark energy shot out of it straight toward Spirits head. A strong gust of wind flew around her making a barrier blocking some of the attack, but some of the beam penetrated the barrier and connected to her head. Her vision went black and she saw a horrible image of a large, slimy swamp monster running toward her in her head.

Feeling scared and confused she backed up while shooting arrows at the hallucination of the monster in her head. She started to panic when she saw that the arrows were having no effect. She tripped and fell back against Amy causing both of them to fall to the ground. Spirit gained her sight back right as the wolf pounced at them. Its mouth was wide open and it was ready to take a bite out of the two of them. Michael had finally reached them in time. He jumped off a tree branch above them flipping forward and bringing a heel down in the center of the wolf's head slamming it to the ground a few feet in front of them. The wolf let out a yelp of pain then got up staggering and went to do its dark howl again but Michael brought his arm back as though he was going to punch the air in front of the wolf. When his arm moved forward a flame shot out from his arm and three fireballs shaped like small rockets made of fire erupted from his fist. Two of the rockets flew to both sides of the wolf's stomach and the last at its mouth.

When the fire rockets hit the wolf, they exploded. Sending the wolf flying up into the air and then twenty feet backwards, his fur had been singed and its mouth burned by flames. The wolf got up whimpering then turned and retreated. Michael watched the wolf as it ran. It looked like a black blur heading toward Dark Woods.

"Are you all right?" Michael asked Spirit offering her his hand to lift her up. With the wolf gone the effect of the dark howl wore off and Spirit was hallucination free.

Spirit grabbed his hand and Michael pulled her up. She felt a little dizzy and stumbled a little bit. Michael grabbed her so she would not fall. Spirit felt her heart thump hard and stood up quickly blushing. She shook off her dizziness, picked up Amy, and carried her piggyback style, she was crying still into the back of Spirit's shirt. They turned back toward the river and walked back.

On the way back to the children, Spirit asked Amy why she had wandered away from the group. She told her that she was chasing a bunny and got lost in the woods. She scolded her and then went to smile at Michael. However, from the look on Michael's face she could tell he was concentrating on something else. It was times like this where he actually looked like a teen becoming an adult in her eyes. Michael's thoughts were on the dark wolf. It was odd that it had been so far away from Dark Woods. He believed that he should inform the King about this accident.

Soon they got back to the other kids at the river.

"Wow, you're the famous Michael," one of the kids said, "Miss Spirit told us all of your stories."

"Really," Michael asked the kids with a loud, excited voice, "Did she tell you about the time I fought a sand worm."

"No," the kids said in unison.

"Well then let me tell you about it," he said sitting on a large stone by the river.

"It all started when I was crossing the desert of DEATH . . . " All the kids sat down around him and started to listen. Michael told them the story until it was time for them to get ready because their parents would be at the edge of the woods soon. Normally Spirit would watch the kids in the castle but today was somewhat like a field trip she did every week.

"I guess that will be it for me watching these kids, huh," Spirit told Michael looking sad.

"Why is that?" he asked wondering what she was talking about.

"Well when parents hear what happened. They're going to be furious."

"Who said the parents will find out," Michael said slyly.

"What do you mean?"

Michael looked at the kids curiously and then said, "Hey, look at what I found." In his hand was a bright, white light in the shape of an orb. Once the kids had gathered around the orb, it flashed a bright light. All the kids looked dazed. He had erased their memories.

"Hey what did you guys do today," Michael asked with a smile.

"We all practiced water conjuring spells by the river and listened to Michael tell stories." The children said in unison.

"I didn't know you could do that," said Spirit looking shocked and then whispered. "It doesn't hurt them does it?"

Michael shook his head and then looked into the air in silence and started to laugh.

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me." Spirit looked at him curiously wondering what other secrets was he hiding.

Chaos City was a dark and dreary land where barely any light poured through the clouds. The buildings and houses outside the palace looked run down and dirty. Creatures, banished dark wizards from Diamond Kingdom, goblins, vampires, ogres, and other dark humanoid type creatures lived around the castle. The stores there sold forbidden magical items that only uses were of the evil kind. A large onyx colored castle stood in the middle of the city its black walls seemed to suck in any light and emanate darkness this was Onyx Castle. Large sharp turrets stabbed the sky and gargoyle lined, bat filled towers gave it a sinister feel that made it fit for the city. Deep in the castle in a dark small fire lit room, a conversation was going on about the discovery of the wolf between the dark King of Chaos City King Taurus and a young man who looked to be around the age of eighteen with spiky, white hair, part of his hair covering his face. He was wearing a black leather trench coat with silver brackets, a dark emerald green shirt, and baggy black pants. On his back was a large sword with a silver handle and trigger like a gun, but there was no hole for a bullet to travel out of it.

"One of our scouting wolves quickly returned beaten, when we used memory retrieval magic it showed that it was found by a fire using young man and the Princess," said the King sitting in a large black dragon skin chair. He was a tall, lanky man with gray aging hair. His teeth were yellow and his nose was long and narrow. He was a frail looking man, but his power as a Dark Magician kept all the creatures in the city from revolting.

"There's nothing to worry about they'll just think it's a stray," the young man replied while walking around the room looking at the portrait of a man changing into a werewolf. He stared at the immense look of pain on his face for a few seconds and then continued walking.

The king still looked uneasy.

"I've seen that young boy before, supposedly he comes from a family that travels the world, and a son always comes back here from crossing a desert. His ancestors have stopped many of our wars," the King responded.

"Don't worry I've kept my end of the bargain, you keep yours and things will be in the bag for you," the young man said calmly as he stopped in front of the king's chair.

"So you captured it," said the King unbelieving.

"It wasn't too hard but I had to use all of the talismans you gave me."

"You used all of them?" the king asked.

"All of them."

"Then you will be able to find what you are looking for when we invade," said the king confidently.

"Fine," he said as he walked toward the door his necklace which had a strange broken charm that looked like a dragon on it gleamed from the fire.

The dark room that the king was sitting in suddenly filled with light as the door swung open.

"Daddy," a young woman's voice rang out. A blur came into the room passing by the young man and stopped when it hit the king. A young woman (five foot ten, one hundred thirty pounds) around sixteen was hugging the king. She had long, silky black hair that flowed to her mid-back. Her skin was a caramel color and her eyes' bright green. She wore a gray eighteenth century style trench coat with a pointed collar, a tight black revealing shirt, and a black miniskirt with knee-high combat boots. Her bubbly personality was a complete contrast to the environment.

When she smiled, two long pointy white teeth showed.

"Thank you, thank you, thanks you," she said while hugging him tight. One of the guards stifled a laugh.

"First, dear, let me go. Then tell me why you are thanking me, Michelle," the king said wheezing and embarrassed.

"The prince of Diamond City is so cute and strong. He was nice and a proper gentleman when he met me. He seemed to like me a lot and kept smiling at me. When I asked him why, he kept blushing and saying how beautiful the weather was," she said laughing then continued, "We even set the date for the wedding."

The King had been sipping something out of a gold cup and at this point, he spit it out.

"But . . . but . . . this is so sudden," the King had exclaimed, "I thought you would have been more upset from having to marry the prince of Diamond City, since they took your mother away from you when you were young. I had agreed to the peace treaty but I thought it would be a year or two before a wedding. I loved your mother a lot even though she was a vampire she never turned me into one. She loved me as a human. It still makes me angry to give you up to him even if it is for peace." He slammed his hand against his armrest at the end of his words.

The happy tone of her voice changed to a pleading sound as she spoke, "I loved Mom too, but what happed to her was what happens in wars, that was under a different King also, I'm tired of seeing the people of our land die, and looking at Prince Rocky I think I've fallen in love."

"THAT'S ABSURD," the king shouted, "I WILL NOT HAVE THAT KIND OF TALK IN MY PALACE. IF YOU ARE WITH HIM, IT WILL BE FOR PEACE NOTHING MORE."

"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LET ME BE HAPPY?" Michelle yelled at him. The princess' eyes watered and tears fell as she turned around and ran out the room.

"Are you worried sir?" One of the guards asked.

"No," the king said his face red and his breathing still fast, "Our plan will be finished before the wedding and the prince along with all of Diamond City will be dead now that I have my secret weapon."

Michelle ran out into the hallway and bumped into the white-haired teen as she ran by him.

"Sorry," she said after running by him. She stopped after a few steps, feeling dizzy and shook her head as though trying to shake it off.

"Are you all right?" The white haired teenager asked.

"Yeah I just remembered something I had forgotten but thanks for asking," she said looking at him in an odd way. He seemed young but his eyes seemed to make him look older. He did not look like a vampire but his white hair seemed odd. He looked as though his affinity was for light instead of darkness. The sword on his back looked too heavy for a normal person to carry.

"Well make sure you don't forget whom you love," he said walking away, "they're the ones that would do _anything_ for you."

**Chapter 3**

**Training and Diamonds City's Dragon Problem**

At the center of Diamond City was a large ivory and silver palace. A large village surrounded it. The village contained small stores, restaurants, and many houses. Everyone in the village was a witch, wizard, or a light using magical creature. The village's economy flourished with trading within the village. The people were happy and carefree since magic solved most of their problems. Outside the village to the east, there was a large dome shape object covering a four-mile size area. Walking into the castle grounds six walls surrounded the main castle. The courtyard surrounding the castle was full of ivory and bronze statues of previous Kings and Queens. Trees with bright and beautiful flowers were all over. A beautiful silver fountain was in the middle of the courtyard. The fountain streamed different colors of water every few minutes. Inside the ivory walls of the Light Castle, beautifully crafted stained glass windows lined the halls. Soft velvet rugs lined the floor leading into different rooms with solid polished oak doors. In the middle of the throne room floor was a painting of a large white cross with a black wand and a silver sword shaped making an X. Michael and Spirit was giving news to King Giradot in this room while he sat in his large red and ivory throne with Rocky standing beside him about the dark wolf. The king was a large man with bright white long hair and a beard. He had a long red silk cape and a white shirt with black pants. He was older man who you could see had once been very powerful but age had caught up with him. He never wore his crown because he wanted his people to believe that he was just like them not above them.

"I would like to take your information for granted," Giradot replied to the news with his deep voice, "but there isn't enough proof that it wasn't just a stray who wandered into the Mystical Forest."

"With all due respect, your Highness," Michael began, "just because there isn't any proof doesn't mean that the dark wolf wasn't checking out our defenses."

"I agree with Michael, Father, why is it that you won't believe that Chaos City isn't up too no good," Spirit said pleading with him to believe them.

"Of course you would agree with him and find a reason to be suspicious of Chaos City," Rocky said with an angry look in his eyes, "you've been angry about me marrying the Princess since it was first agreed upon. I think you'd say anything to stop it."

"Rocky's right Spirit, the King said firmly then continued, "You never got over the agreement and have been acting selfish recently as though you don't want peace. Spirit looked down at a spot on the floor after hearing this and the King continued. "The reason I believe it is a fluke is because when Princess Michelle visited this morning. It was obvious that she fancies Rocky and they seemed to be hitting it off. Also, this peace talk has been going on for a while."

"They get along so well because they are both idiots," Spirit muttered under her breath.

"That's enough Spirit," the King said angrily then turned calmly to face Michael, "It's not that I don't take you serious Michael, I know you are wise because your forefather's are known throughout the kingdom for their heroics and traveling to the other parts of the world. It is amazing how a son always makes it back here every thirty-five to forty years. For you I will send a few guards to watch the borders but that's it."

"But, Father, you will only send a few soldiers," Spirit said disappointed.

"Yes that is all I will send and that is the end of this conversation," said the King with finality in his voice. They turned and walked out of the throne room and into a brightly lit hallway with many large windows. Once the heavy silver doors closed all the way and they heard the click of the knob Spirit went off.

"God he's so stubborn," Spirit shouted as they were walking down the hallway.

"Well the King will do what he believes is right," Michael said calmly.

"Oh, hush you, Mister King's favorite," Spirit said trying to imitate the King, "Oh because it's you Michael, I'll send a couple of men, Blah, Blah, Blah . . . By the way I've always been curious to ask you. How is it that you made it back here on your own while crossing the Nova desert, the so-called Desert of Death? Many people, even some of our best mages have tried to cross it and disappeared. Another thing, I have seen all of the pictures of your father and his father and so on. Why is it that your father, grandfather, and so on all look so alike except for different hair style and clothes, did they marry the same family of women?"

Michael's face looked a little uneasy and he felt a lump form in his throat. He had been expecting this for some time.

"I'll tell you about it another time," he said calmly as he stepped onto the first step of the staircase at the end of the hallway. It magically carried them down to the first floor of the castle.

"It's a long story and we need to get to your training."

They walked out of the main doors, then through the courtyard and outside of the palace grounds through the village. The main road was made of gold bricks with an anti thieving spell on it. Michael often smiled or smirked when he walked on this road. One day a dwarf walked in front of him and he started laughing so hard that tears came out. The village had brightly colored houses and stores some designed into funny shapes: one was like a cathead; there was a teapot, the coffee house looked like a giant cup with a spoon handle that rotated, a giant shoe, a star, and even one that leaned to one side. It was a marvel that some of the houses were able to stand if it was not for magic. Some of the villagers that were outside of their house waved to them. Others tended to their garden magically changing the colors of their flowers, or riding unicorns to the market area. Young kids flew out of their houses riding on toy brooms that only rose a foot or two up. One witch was chasing her son telling him to get back here and clean his room. Some children and young teenagers came out and followed Michael and Spirit. They liked to watch the two do their training from outside the training dome.

"When will you teach us how to fight and use spells like you?" a dark-skinned teen girl asked Michael.

"Yeah," the other teenagers agreed.

"You know I've always thought about opening a school one day," he told them, "but not just for you guys, for all of the young people in the world with abilities." Spirit smiled at the thought.

"That would be so awesome," a young boy with a green hat yelled out.

They finally made it to a clearing right outside the village's east side. A large transparent bubble spell surrounded the training ground. It reached seven hundred feet high and two hundred yards long. It stood there to protect anything outside from any spells or projectiles that went astray. Spirit and Michael walked inside. Inside there were trees, stationary targets and discs bewitched to fly around, there was an obstacle course, and even a small bottomless lake that stretched outside the bubble wall.

Michael and Spirit started her training. Michael made Spirit practice her aim for her Wind Arrows on the stationary targets first and then made her try to hit a moving target but instead of using the discs, Michael had her try to hit a harder target, himself.

"You're crazy, I can't shoot them at you, what if you get hurt," she said not accepting the idea.

"What? Are you too embarrassed to show the people who are watching that your aim stinks?" he said in a mocking voice. Some of the boys outside started laughing. Spirit looked at them with daggers in her eyes and they got quiet.

"Bring it on fire boy," she shouted angrily at him.

Michael flew around through the trees and Spirit chased after him firing wind arrows from her bow so fast that her hand looked like a blur. She fired an arrow that got close to Michael and then hit a small barrier of fire Michael put up to protect himself.

"That's one," he yelled to her.

After she hit him ten more times, Michael made Spirit dodge his own Fire Rockets.

"It's your turn," Michael said with a mischievous smile. After failing to stop nine out of ten rockets from hitting her, Spirit wanted to move onto something else because even though Michael was using a non-burning type of fire the pressure of being hit still hurt. Therefore, after a short argument in which Michael did the chicken dance that then led to Spirit creating a large lump on Michael's head they moved on. It was getting late, all of the people watching them had left, and the sun was setting. Michael lit a tree on fire and told Spirit to put out the flames. Spirit used the same trick that she had used earlier on the fireball Michael had sent at her that morning thinking that it would be easy. It did not work.

"This is a different type of fire it's made to not use oxygen, you're going to have to try something different."

Spirit thought for a second and created a tornado around it thinking to blow it out, but it still didn't work it spread it even more. Then it came to her, she moved the tornado to the lake and sucked up some water. She moved toward the tree and dropped the water on it putting it out.

"Good thinking," said Michael. "It's nice to see your learning."

"A non oxygen needing fire, huh, you're full of tricks," Spirit said wondering what else Michael could do.

Michael thought for a moment and then said, "I have a trick for you to learn, I'm going to run around and I want you to stop me by stopping the air around me."

"Can we try that tomorrow because I'm pooped?" Spirit replied sighing and then flopping down on the ground. Her hands were red from all the bowstring pulling. Michael agreed and picked her up and piggybacked her on his back. She fell asleep with her head lying on his shoulder. Michael let out a sigh as he felt his shoulder get wet from drool.

"And she's supposed to be a Princess," he said with a chuckle.

Michael carried her through the village heading back toward the castle. The sky was now dark and the street lamps were on. Michael could hear pots and pans banging around from their after dinner cleaning inside the houses he passed. His stomach was rumbling and he could not wait to get some castle food. A cool evening breeze flowed through the village carrying with it the smell of magical flowers and plants in people's yards. While he was walking, Michael was arguing inside his head with himself.

"I should tell her . . . But she won't understand, she'll feel betrayed that she was lied to, But I've been training her for two years now, But think about what happened last time, But she's not like that. She needs to know who I am and what she is." Michael was so deep in thinking to himself, that it startled him when he felt a drop of something wet hit his head. He reached up to feel his head and felt something slimy. He looked at his hand and saw some kind of clear bubbly liquid. He looked around and noticed that he had walked into the wooded path that leads to the palace courtyard. He looked up but did not see anything in the trees around him.

"Kids must have been playing with some kind of goo and got it stuck in the tree," he thought to himself.

He kept walking through the path until he reached a clearing and walked through the ivory and gold gates of the courtyard. He felt a strong gust of warm wind behind him and turned around to see the source.

"Um, Spirit you might want to wake up for this," Michael said his voice a little shaky.

"Huh," Spirit said with a start, looked up, and jumped off of Michael's back. They both started to back up slowly using baby steps.

RRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR! In the clearing on the opposite side of the gate was a giant dragon. It was brown with scales that looked like they were made of stone had landed on the ground 40 feet in front of them, its giant wings were still flapping and forming strong gusts of wind. It had no less than thirty white talismans spell sheets attached to its body. It roared again and then charged. It broke through the gate as though it was made of toothpicks.

"Th-That's impossible," she said shaking the color left her face, "a dragon this far away from the mountains."

"Why don't you tell him that he shouldn't be here then Spirit?" Spirit stood frozen in fear. Michael grabbed her arm and pulled her away, but she did not want to move.

"RUN," Michael yelled at the top of his lungs snapping her out of it.

Spirit and Michael turned around quickly and ran. The dragon rose back into the air and circled around the courtyard. Aggravated by their zigzagging running, the dragon started launching fireballs at them. Michael and Spirit jumped and rolled behind statues and stone doing whatever they could to dodge each fireball.

"SPIRIT, TRY USING YOUR BOW," Michael yelled over another roar from the dragon. Spirit took out her bow and started to counter attack. She launched arrows into the air at the fireballs but they just made them bigger. She ducked down behind the large fountain as one hit the ground a few feet in front of it sending dirt flying into the air showering Spirit with it.

"You have to concentrate and use the carbon dioxide in the air instead of oxygen," Michael told her while taking cover behind a large statue of Spirit's grandfather.

"Why aren't you doing anything?" she yelled at him.

"His skin is too thick for any of my regular attacks," Michael yelled back. Spirit took a deep breath and concentrated while pulling back her bow. Her arrow gave off a dark gray light. She jumped up and fired at one of the fireballs heading at Michael and it turned into a puff of smoke.

"We need to get somewhere safe," Spirit said and then she saw that in the middle of the courtyard there was a stone shrine. Spirit looked at Michael and pointed at it. They ran toward it weaving through the large statues that surrounded it. The dragon flew after them and took a large breath. It shot out a large blast of fire scorching the ground behind them. Michael pushed Spirit into the shrine and let the flames engulf him. Spirit fell scraping her legs and scratching her right arm. She screamed as she turned and saw the fire surround him and tears ran down her eyes while thinking the worst.

The flames stopped and a large blaze was still burning in front of the shrine doorway. Then the fire started to swirl and form into a ball. Michael walked into the shrine unharmed with the ball of fire in his hand.

"You didn't think I would die that easily from a blast of fire. Did you forget that fire is my element?" He asked smiling as he turned the ball of fire to a puff. Spirit ran up to him and hugged him. She let go of him quickly.

"Owww, you're still hot," she said while rubbing her arms then continuing, "Why couldn't you make his fireballs go into puffs like that instead of making us fall."

"Because I just wanted to see what you got," he told her honestly, "I wouldn't let anything too bad happen to you."

"Your lesson timing sucks," Spirit yelled while punching him in the arm, "Well at least we'll be safe in here."

"Safe," said Michael unbelieving, "not exactly . . . we have to go stop that thing. It's left us and is going to attack the castle."

They ran out of the shrine and headed for the palace. In the sky above the palace, the dragon was flying and attacking the palace. You could see many lights from spells flying toward the dragon and just bouncing off its skin. Dragons have a high resistance to magic and it takes powerful spells to bring them down. Fireballs from the dragon's mouth scorched the palace walls and sent chunks of stone flying off. The smell of smoke filled the air. Spirit started to cough from the large amount of smoke in the air, but Michael seemed unfazed by it. Just then, they saw a light appear above the dragon and someone fell from it on top of the dragon.

"It is Rocky," Spirit yelled, "He's gotten himself on top of the dragon."

The dragon rose up and started to spin its body trying to dislodge its rider. Sparks were flying off the dragon from Rocky hitting the dragons' rough skin with his sword. The dragon flew toward the high towers of the castle and rammed its back against it knocking the tower over. Rocky quickly leaped off the dragons' back just in time to avoid it smashing him against the wall. He tried to teleport in midair but as he was lighting up, the dragon's tail swung around and smacked him toward the ground. When he hit the ground, dust flew into the air and when it cleared, you could see that a small crater had formed around him from the impact.

"ROCKY!" Spirit cried and started to run toward him, but Michael grabbed her hand and held her back. She tugged her hand trying to escape his grip but could not.

"You don't have time to worry about him, the medical witches will attend to him," he said. Witches dressed in white and red outfits with white witch hats were running out to retrieve the prince and others injured by the dragons' fireballs.

"Like hell, I am. I'm not going to just going to leave him there with them," Spirit yelled at him.

"You have to calm down, you have to help me, or there will be more like him or worse," Michael said calmly. Spirit looked at him with an extremely angry look and then said, "What is it you need."

"I need you to keep it busy and inside the inner courtyard and then on my signal I need you to create a large powerful tornado and suck him into it. I'll take it from there," Michael said firmly.

Spirit jumped up, used wind magic to push herself up, and landed on top of the castles' roof behind the dragon. Michael watched her go.

"Giradot is so gonna have my head for this if it doesn't work out," he told himself.

"It's Princess Spirit," the guards below were yelling.

"SPIRIT," Giradot yelled out from below red in the face, "GET DOWN FROM THERE."

"I CAN DO THIS DAD," she yelled back confidently.

Michael was down in the courtyard inside the castle walls spreading a bright red fire onto the ground and yelling, "I need everyone to clear the area so that we can stop the dragon with this attack."

"I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE WHILE MY DAUGHTER IS OUT THERE," King Giradot bellowed angrily at him.

"Sir, I'm sorry but no one will be able to stand this next attack, I need you to retreat into the castle and close off any of the windows and doors leading out here. It's going to get really hot," Michael told him calmly. Giradot looked at him hard and then saw that there was no way around it.

"YOU HEARD HIM EVERYONE, GET INTO THE CASTLE," he ordered. Overhead Spirit had pulled her bow from around her shoulder and started shooting wind arrows at the dragon to get its attention. The hits of the arrows felt like little taps to the thick-skinned dragon.

"HEY, YOU, BIG AND UGLY, OVER HERE," she yelled at it and shot an arrow into its eye. The dragon stopped and let out a loud roar. It turned steam pouring from its nose and looked at her. It flew after her and she started to run. While shooting her arrows at it she kept jumping from roof to roof using the wind to glide. The dragon started shooting fireballs from its mouth after getting irritated. Spirit started using her wind abilities at its fullest extent by creating strong gusts of winds that altered the path of the balls.

"DO IT NOW, SPIRIT," Michael yelled from below. Spirit used the last of her strength and created a giant tornado underneath the dragon sucking it inside of it. She then fainted on the roof. On the ground below Michael stood, the wind pulling him toward the tornado. He had cleared the area before the tornado and created a symbol on the ground made of fire that was a circle with a three-pointed star inside it and in its center was the picture of a flame. The tornado started to dissipate and the dragon was recovering its senses.

"Let's hope this works," he said looking at the dragon. "FIRESTORM," he yelled. Then he cast a fire barrier around Spirit and himself.

The sky lit up as the clouds gathered around the moon and turned different shades of red. Red bolts of lightning spread across the sky. A giant twirling pillar of fire came from the sky and hit the dragon. The intense heat melted all the statues in the courtyard. Trees and plants in the area burst into flames. The dragon let out a loud shriek like a roar of pain and slammed into the ground from the pressure. The dragon kept trying to rise but the pressure of the fire blazing down on it would not let it move. The pillar kept burning it for a full minute and then the sky turned back to normal. The dragon was not moving anymore. It gave off a horrible smell of burnt skin. The tips of its scales were charred and some were glowing bright red from the heat. They had stopped it.

Michael looked at the dragon making sure it would not get back up. He then removed the barriers around them and sent a burst of flames on the ground that lifted him off the ground onto the roof Spirit laid. When he landed, he walked toward Spirit and stumbled. He had just used his strongest fire attack and it had taken a lot out of him.

"Man, I haven't used that move in a while, I can't believe it took that much out of me, maybe I should have restrained a little less power," he thought to himself while looking at two red tattoos of ancient symbols that surrounded his wrist that had appeared. He shook his arms and the tattoos disappeared. He walked up to Spirit and pulled her up so that she was sitting up in his arms.

"Hey wake up," Michael said, but she didn't stir, he smiled then said, "wow I can't believe you fainted after that little bit of work." Spirit's eyes shot open and her fist hit Michael in the stomach.

"What do you mean little bit of work, I almost got my butt toasted and you call avoiding that a little bit of work," Spirit yelled at him, "and we just finished training?" Michael laughed.

"Hey," Spirit said pointing behind Michael, "who's that?" Michael turned around and stood up.

A large stone dragon claw shaped hand reached out and grabbed his neck. It then lifted him up off his feet and then retracted bringing him closer to the person attached to it. Michael looked from the hand up to the arm which looked dragon like and then to the person holding him. Attached to the arm was a teenage boy, his hair was long, messy, and brown, and his eyes were stony grey. He looked as though he was the same age as Michael, six feet and five inches tall, and one hundred seventy-five pounds. He was wearing no shirt or shoes, so his large chest, abdominal muscles, and feet were showing, along with his other arm that was normal and full of muscles. Talismans covered his body. His pants were baggy and from his back were two dragon wings, not as large as the other dragon's but the same color and look. Michael looked below at the dragons' body, but it was not there. "He looks so familiar," he thought.

"It can't be," Michael, asked wheezing and holding the arm that had his neck, "Wes, is that you?"

The young man looked at Michael with a look of recognition; he then looked as though he was in immense pain and grabbed his head with a free arm as though it was hurting him to think. He shook it off and spoke.

"I don't know who Wes is, but I do know that it's been a long time since someone took me out of my dragon form and weakened me this much. However, before I return to my master to recover my strength, here is an award." He threw Michael off the roof jumped down after him. While in midair, he punched him with his dragon like fist. Michael was too exhausted to defend himself. He slammed into the ground making a much larger crater than Rocky. You could hear loud cracks through the air. His bones were breaking from the impact. Michael stared up at the teen in shock and then he passed out. Stone tiles from the palace courtyard rocks flew into the air and then started to mold together into a shape. A large rock formed in the middle of the air below Wes it then took shape into a giant spear and went down into Michael's abdomen. Spirit screamed.

"NO," she cried out.

Wes rose back in the air his wings beating as he faced toward the castle.

"I was sent here as a declaration of War. The Peace Treaty is off. Chaos City will be attacking in three days to crush you for the last time." He flew up into the air and flew off toward Dark Woods.

Spirit jumped down to Michael and ran to his side grabbing his hand. She tried to find some way to help. She did not know any major healing spells and she had used too much energy fighting the dragon to try to lift the rock.

"HELP," she cried out for someone to come help her. She could hear banging on the doors from soldiers trying to get to her. The fire attack Michael released had melted the doors together and to their frames. She was crying when she noticed the spear start to rise out of Michael as though something was pushing it out. Spirit stepped back in shock.

"What magic is this?" she whispered under her breath. The rock spear fell to the side with a loud thump. The hole in the middle of Michael's stomach started to close and heal. Spirit ran forward and went to feel for any broken bones, but there was not any, and then a pair of large pure white wings flowed out from Michael's back. The white wings shone like the moonlight and then quickly disappeared as quickly as they came leaving small feathers floating in the air around her. She felt a warm refreshing feeling as the scratches on her legs and arm from Michael pushing her into the shrine disappeared.

**Chapter 4**

**S.M.X.**

Spirit stayed by Michael's side in the infirmary that night. She told no one what she had seen come out of Michaels' back or about the stone piercing through him. Since Michael had evacuated the area, no one-else saw what happened after the dragon had attacked. By the time the medical witches had gotten to him, the wings and the feathers had disappeared. A flood of emotions and thoughts ran through her mind. Part of her felt betrayed, hurt, and angry that she had been deceived. She had believed that Michael was just an ordinary wizard. She was also curious and relieved as to what Michael was and that he was ok.

"Maybe he had a reason to hide what he is," she thought. Michael had been training her for four years now and she thought of him as one of her best friends. Then she thought of the pictures of his ancestors and what he had told her, "there's a lot you don't know about me." Is it possible that it was Michael in all of those pictures? Is he an angel? She finally fell asleep with these and many questions in her head.

Light was pouring into the infirmary and the phoenixes were singing from the trees outside. Spirit woke up from the chair beside Michael's bed. She had fallen asleep while looking over him. She looked beside her to see if Michael was awake yet but the bed was empty. She jumped up and looked around panicking. Had he run away knowing that she had seen what he was?

"Calm down, I am out here," she heard a voice call out from the balcony behind her. She walked through the curtains outside to the balcony and saw him sitting on the balconies' edge watching the phoenixes flying.

"I wasn't upset," she said looking at him slightly relieved.

"Sure you weren't," Michael said laughing. "You know I wish every day was like this sunny, yet a breezy calm day, no clouds in sight."

"How can you be thinking about weather at a time like this, when in three days Chaos City will be invading us," said Spirit angrily.

"Come on, Spirit. We both know that's not the real reason you're angry with me. If you have any questions you want to ask, then ask away and I'll answer them but wait until after I tell you what you deserve to know."

"My name is St. Michael X otherwise known as S.M.X. I am the tenth angelic reincarnation. Meaning I have died nine times as an angel and this is my tenth and final life. I am over billions of years old. Yes, I am an archangel. No, I will not answer any questions involving religion so no is there a god, what he looks like, or what color is he. The truth is the story you were telling those kids, the one that I told you, it's true. The boy found a wish-making device that we angels had only heard rumors about. He made a wish and bam, instant chaos. The angels came onto earth and created order to fix the screwed up mess we were in. They could not change things back, it was impossible, so we improvised. They erased everyone's memory of the event. People spoke many different languages; the angels made them speak only one, except for the underwater city because no one knows where it is. We know it's there, but we can't find it. Then to stop any more large-scale wars from breaking out between the lands the angels created landscapes that would take a miracle to cross so that no one would travel between the different lands. Many of the people use to stay in one country never meeting anyone else from another country. There were tribes in Africa and in South America that had never seen anyone from outside their tribe. Imagine how they felt after the change. What a big culture shock. Now many types of people live together in unity. We solved the problem of discrimination but ran into another. Some of the people on Earth were stronger power wise than angels and many angels lost their lives, so they retreated. Then the demons attacked and I had to lead an army against them. After it was over most angels left the planet and went back to heaven but I have stayed because of personal reasons and also to make sure everything remains somewhat peaceful, and I love this planet. I'm sorry to have kept this from you but I like to have a somewhat peaceful life too. Is there anything else you would like to know?"

Spirit stood there with her mouth opened, looking shocked.

"Is it a little too much to take in," Michael asked with a smirk? She nodded her head up and down. Michael laughed.

"It answers a lot of things," she said to once Michael had stopped laughing. She thought about some of the things and asked, "what about the boy."

"He disappeared after that night. No one knows what happened to him. We searched all over so either he ended up in the underwater city or that bullet could have possibly hit him."

"So what you're saying is that the only reason I have these powers is because of some wish a little kid made," she asked in a cracking voice full of sadness.

"No, at first that was the case but I believe that if the world changed again everyone would retain their abilities since it's a part of them now. Spirit I believe that you would have gotten your powers if the world had never changed to begin with," said Michael while giving her an encouraging smile.

"What do you mean? I thought all the people on earth were normal before the wish took place, that's what you told me in the story I told the kids," said a confused Spirit.

"Oh no," Michael said with a smile, "not everyone was normal. Every kind of creature in this world was alive during at some point in history before the wish happened. That's where most of the stories came from. There were vampires, werewolves, witches/wizards, people with super powers, and even aliens. I lost most of my lives fighting those types of creatures who were doing evil deeds."

"Then how am I special," Spirit asked curiously.

"You're a Guardian, an elemental being. You can control your element as if you were made of it. That's why you can't use any other magic. Your Guardian powers block you from using it. There are eight Guardians on the earth right now. Each one holds a different element. There is fire, wind, earth, electric/lightning, grass, water, light, and darkness. I was curious on when the Guardian of Wind would appear considering the last one past on some years back," Michael replied.

"How will I know whether or not I am a guardian?" Spirit asked not sure whether she should believe him.

"Do you have a little tattoo of a tornado on your body that you didn't put there?" Michael asked hoping for the right answer because secretly he was not that sure she was.

"Yes," she said surprised, "It is right on my b . . ." She stopped turned red in the face and then quickly asked another question. "You're a Guardian too right," Spirit asked.

"Yes, I'm the Guardian of Fire, see," he said while lifting up his sleeve exposing his upper arm where there was a small red tattoo of flames, "and the dragon that you met last night was the Guardian of Earth."

"His name is Wes. He was a being that was around before the wish but he had also disappeared after the wish."

"He is half human, half dragon, how did that happen," asked a very confused Spirit.

"A long time ago Wes and I were on an adventure together before the wish, back then I came down to earth a lot to have fun," Michael began, "we were exploring the hidden treasures of a King called Charlemagne. He had a lot of powerful magical stuff and cursed objects that he had collected. One of the objects there was a dragon scale. Dragons had already died out many years before we had gotten there. I told Wes not to touch it that he would regret it if it was cursed but he didn't listen. It transferred its curse to him making him able to transform into a dragon (which wasn't that bad) but the curse left one of his arms dragon like. His wings are retractable like mine."

"But how is it that he has been alive all this time," Spirit asked trying to find out as much as she could. "Being a guardian allows you to live longer? How much longer does it increase your lifespan? Does it allow you to live hundreds of years?"

"Eh, I'm not really sure. Wes is a warrior from one of the warriors' tribes that lived in early 12,000's B.C. It is possible that he was immortal to begin with since he was already one hundred and fifty years old when he became a guardian though he still had a body of a sixteen-year-old boy. Moreover being that he's part dragon, a species that already lives over hundreds of years, who knows when he'll kick the bucket. You're the first normal human Guardian. "

"I'm the first normal Guardian," Spirit said surprised. "If one day I'll be as strong as you and that Wes guy and live that long, then being a Guardian is great."

"Yeah they all think that but there's a catch," Michael said seriously while looking into her eyes.

"A catch?"

"Being that I've lived so long don't you think I should look older and act my age?" Spirit looked confused.

"But you're an angel right," Spirit asked him, "I thought you were immortal."

"We are but we still age slowly. There are angels younger than me with beards and look around seventy years old, but being a Guardian stops time for you physically and mentally at the age of sixteen."

"What do you mean?" Spirit asked still unsure of what he meant.

"I mean that no matter what you learn or how old you get your mind will think like a teenager. Once you turn sixteen you don't age a day more. You don't grow up, you're in a constant state of puberty," Michael said. There was a tone of sadness in his voice.

"Is that truly a bad thing?" Spirit asked him.

"You might not think it is at first but once you notice everyone around you . . . ," Michael started but then smiled and said, "But why am I boring you with the little things? It's an honor to be one."

"An honor, huh," Spirit said smiling. "Why do you stop aging?"

"I don't know . . . I think it has to do with an imagination thing to be able to think up and use the abilities the way we do. You have to be open-minded and imaginative."

"How are you chosen to become a Guardian?" Spirit asked curiously.

"I don't know. The element chooses you," Michael answered while shrugging his shoulders. "I was born one and Wes's found out that he was one in the middle of an earthquake. The ground around him had given way but he stayed up floating on a piece of rock."

"It chose me . . . ?"

"Yeah it means you're trustworthy enough to control a great power," Michael said proudly. "I'm glad you're interested in all of this, but now I have a question for you." He held out his hand and asked, "Friends?" Spirit looked at him and then his hand; she pushed his hand down, ran forward, and hugged him. When she let go Michael looked at her and replied, "as much as I would like to continue this conversation we have a lot to prepare for."

"Yeah, your right," Spirit said determined to stop Chaos City in its track. Her heart filled with relief at finding out the truth about her best friend and with happiness at finding out that she was special. They both set out to see the King and prepare for battle.

On their way to the King, they paid a visit to Rocky's room. He was still in bed, wrapped in bandages; many of his ribs were broken. He smiled at them when they came in.

"Wow I can't believe you guys brought down that dragon. You know I weakened it for you."

"Of course you did Rocky," laughed Spirit.

"I just can't believe they attacked us, the princess just seemed to really like me, and we both wanted peace in our land," said an unbelieving Rocky.

"You know," Michael said in a wondering tone, "the princess might not have been in on it." He looked at Michael gratefully.

"Those are some encouraging words, I hope your right," and then he changed the subject, "I heard you ended up in a larger crater than I, yet you don't have a scratch on you, Michael. You must be really strong, one of these days I want to fight you."

"Come on Rocky don't joke like that," Spirit said uneasily while looking from one to another.

"I'll be waiting," said Michael smiling. He could understand how Rocky was feeling and it would dishonor him if he turned him down.

When they got to the King's war room the King and his generals were all discussing defense measures. They were sitting at a round table with maps evacuation plans and attack patterns. King Giradot was telling his men, "We can defend against their ground forces attack but not against an air attack from a dragon."

"Don't worry about that dragon sir I will handle it," Michael said as he entered the room.

"Are you sure?" asked Giradot. "It mopped the floor with you last night, son."

"Yes I can take care of him," replied Michael, "he had a trick in his bag that I was unaware of but I'll be ready for round two. He's an earth-manipulating dragon. You'll have to reinforce the castle walls for breach. It's going to feel like an earthquake is happening when they attack."

"Their probably going to use dark wolves and werewolves as their first line of attack," said a general. There also might be a few vampires there, so you should have the battlefield lit up because the attack is most likely to happen at night, so I want an ultra violet spell casting light over the castle, Giradot demanded then continued, "I can guarantee also that they are going to bring dark fire cannons." Dark fire cannons were cannons with a high level of dark energy stored within. When fired they break through barriers and cause any magic besides dark magic to malfunction.

"So in order for us to win this war we are going to have to go in and take out the cannons before they get here."

"Do not worry we'll go," Spirit said in a confident voice.

"No, you will not," Giradot said looking at her as though she was mad. "I'll send the Magi Ops to do it."

"Yes, we are," she shot back determination in her voice and a look of it on her face, "we are the most capable, the fastest, and the most likely to succeed. If the Magi Ops get discovered it'll become a suicide mission, but if we get found out Michael can just blow up the place." Giradot looked at her frustrated. He knew that once Spirit's mind was set he would not be able to change it. He turned to Michael and said, "If anything happens to her you'll be held responsible. Good luck both of you and be careful." They turned and walked out of the room.

"I liked how you just volunteered me for that," Michael told her a few halls down. "We're the most capable, the fastest . . . Tell a mouse it's a Guardian and it'll try to save the world."

"You know you wanted to go," she replied, "and anyway I can't do it alone."

"Awww, you're pulling my heartstrings," Michael told her sarcastically while grabbing his shirt by his heart area. She punched him in his stomach!

"What did you do that for?" Michael yelled holding his stomach.

"I JUST SAID SOMETHING NICE TO YOU AND YOU GO AND MAKE FUN OF IT, YOU JERK, I DON'T KNOW WHY I EVEN PUT UP WITH YOU!", Spirit shouted at him.

The two of them split ways and went to prepare for the trip. Michael was in his room that the King had given to him when he had come back across the desert. He was rummaging through his trunk for something. When he found what he was looking for, he held it up to the light from the window. It was an old photograph of him and Wes when he was in dragon form. Sitting on top of Wes's back was two small dark skinned girls.

"Don't worry girls," he said as he put the photograph in his pocket, "I'll rescue him from himself."

Michael and Spirit met back up at the entrance path into the woods outside the courtyard, Spirit with her broom in hand. Spirit was wearing a black tank top with matching pants and hat.

"Wow, look at you, and your spy wear," Michael said laughing. "You're not going to need that broom now."

"Then how are we going to get there," Spirit asked. They walked into the wooded path so that no one would see. Michael took a step back and said, "Release." Bright white wings came out of Michael's back, and they were large and soft looking.

Spirit wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his midriff. With one beat of his wings, they rose out of the woods quickly and were both high in the sky. "Welcome to my world," Michael said smiling.

"Wow, this is amazing," Spirit, said in awe, as she felt the wind against her skin and flowing through her hair.

"Chaos City has probably set up broom detecting spells around the woods so this is the best way to go," Michael told her.

"All right then let's go," Spirit shouted sounding excited. They flew off toward Dark Woods.

**Chapter 5**

**Chaos City**

It was reaching dusk when they reached the canyon where the Magical forest meets Dark Woods. When they landed, Michael retracted his wings into his back. Spirit noticed that when Michael's wings went back in an insignia with a pair of wings appeared on the back of his trench coat. When she was on his back, she noticed that the insignia was not there. Spirit asked him about it.

"My trench coat is what hide my wings when I take it off my wings show," he replied, "I am surprised that you never noticed that you have never seen me without a jacket or trench coat. I could put the spell on more clothes but it's boring and time consuming."

"Why did we land here?" Spirit asked while looking around. "Couldn't we fly closer to Onyx Palace?"

"No, the forest canopy is so mangled together that it's impossible to get through."

Dark Woods' name served the place well. Even on the brightest day, it was dark under its mangled and dense trees. At nighttime, the place was even creepier. Rumors claimed it had some of the most dangerous magical creatures. Spirit hoped they would not run into any of them. Spirit was in front, Michael in the rear, they were moving quickly through the woods hoping to complete their mission before noon tomorrow.

"Man it's creepy here, isn't it," she said waiting to hear Michael respond. However, there was no answer. She turned around and saw that Michael was not there. She started to panic and stopped to look around behind her. She turned back around to look into the area she was headed.

"BOO!" Michael said standing close to her. Spirit panicked, closed her eyes, and kicked him square in his sensitive area before sending out a burst of wind and throwing him into a tree. A few minutes later after Spirit had opened her eyes and Michael received a few slaps and a swift kick. They were back on course to Chaos City. Every few steps a whimper would escape from Michael as he walked.

"WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO CRY ABOUT?" Spirit snapped at him.

"You didn't have to kick me so hard," Michael snapped back. After an hour of traveling through the forest, they heard a loud slithering noise behind them. They looked behind them but there was not anything there. Another slithering noise came from above them. Michael looked up and once again saw nothing. They took a few steps forward and Spirit quickly turned around. Traveling through the ground was a skinny, long, and scaly fin. The ground around it looked distorted as though it was made of water. Spirit and Michael turned and ran. The fin followed. Michael and Spirit split and jumped up onto two different trees. The fin rose out of the ground and a large five feet wide and fifteen feet long snake surfaced.

"They're Shadow Vipers," Spirit told Michael. "I've heard of them before and they are highly poisonous. They can travel within shadows which makes it easier for them to catch prey."

The snake went toward Michael's tree, started to slither up it, and disappeared into the trees shadows. Michael shuddered.

"I hate snakes."

Spirit told him trying to comfort him.

"No I really hate snakes. There sneaky, slippery, and quick with their fangs," he said while looking around for the snake to surface.

"Don't worry I got your back," Spirit said confidently.

"It can only go underground if there are shadows right," Michael asked her loudly.

"Yes only if there's shadows," she replied watching the snake rise out of the tree closer to him.

"I need you to disperse the smoke from the fire I'm going to create," Michael yelled. Flames burst from his hands and he threw fireballs at the ground of the tree and at the spot where he was standing. Spirit formed small funnel clouds to catch the smoke from the fire. Michael jumped from the tree but after he passed the snake's fins to his surprise, it jumped out of the shadows as well. Michael landed on his feet, created a fire barrier around him, and looked up expecting the snake to land on him. The snakes' mouth was an inch away from Michael's face causing him to jump back. He looked at its side and saw that holding it there was five wind arrows that had mounted it to the tree.

"Wow, I'm impressed you made five six foot long arrows made of wind. You made them solid enough to pierce through its skin and hold it there."

Spirit smiled.

"Looks like I saved you this time. The poison from its fangs would have broken through your barrier." They walked away and the arrows disappeared allowing the snake's carcass to fall to the ground.

After twenty more minutes of travel, they reached Chaos City. Carefully sticking to the outside of the village to avoid notice, they arrived half a mile from the fort that surrounded Chaos City. There were many dark creatures there. Patrolling the walls were goblins, ogres, and crocotors (violent half-man and half crocodile scaly beasts). In cages beside the entrances were dark wolves and werewolves. Looking from the trees outside the fort Michael and Spirit looked amazed. It looked impossible to get inside the fort's walls unnoticed. There were guards at every entrance and too many monsters patrolling the fort walls.

"Crap, we never suspected them to be prepared so fast," Spirit said disappointed.

"Who said it was going to be easy," said Michael with a smirk.

"Your just loving the fact that we have to fight them, aren't you," Spirit replied, "I thought angels were all la~la~la no violence, keep the peace and all that."

"Regular angels are like that but archangels are more aggressive, we don't follow the same rules. If you don't want to fight, we might not have to," he told while looking at something else through the trees, "come on." They went away from the fort to a road heading toward the fort and saw a horse pulled cart coming loaded with supplies. It was so heavy that the horses could only pull it at a slower pace. Michael jumped out from the trees behind the cart and ran up behind it, so that the driver did not notice it. Michael ducked underneath it lit his hands a blazed and burned hand and foot holes in the wood and then signaled to Spirit. Spirit jumped down and joined Michael under the cart. She then used the wind to blow more dust than the horses' hoofs were making up from underneath the cart to hide their presence.

When they got to the gates, the cart stopped and guards checked the carts inside. The guards walked into the cart and one-stepped on Michael's fingers making his eyes tear up as he held his mouth shut not making a sound. The cart drove through the gates and stopped at the supply tent.

They could see a few dark fire cannons through the open flap of the tent. They waited for the driver to leave and then went into the supply tent. The guards there were two male vampires. Michael ran past them without giving them any notice and Spirit followed. The vampires turned and followed them into the tent, shocked.

"Who do you think you are just walking through here, you light kingdom scum?" one of the vampires hissed at them.

"We're the welcoming committee," Michael said turning to face them with a smile on his face. They both ran toward them, their teeth and sharp claws bared. "We're going to make you regret sneaking in here, Fools!" one of the vampires said. Spirit created a mini tornado in the tent and sucked the two into it. Then a flame appeared in Michael's hand it was a bright white flame brighter than any normal magical flame, Spirit had seen. Michael walked up to the spinning vampires and the flame flashed a bright blinding light in the tent. The vampires burst into flames and Spirit stopped the tornado. The only thing left of them was their clothes and cloaks. Michael grabbed the cloaks and threw one to Spirit.

"What's this for?" Spirit asked giving him an odd look.

"It's to cover your identity," Michael replied back.

"You've got to be kidding," She whined, "This cloak has a dead vampire all over it."

"Vampires turn to ashes when they die, stop complaining, and just put the cloak on," he said while covering himself in the cloak. She put the cloak on with a disgusted look then stuck her tongue at him when he turned his back. They set explosives around the tent and left hoping the cloaks would hide their identities. There was only a small amount of cannons in that tent so there had to be more in the camp somewhere.

Before they left the tent, they grabbed some boxes. They planned to use them as a means to find out where the other cannons were. They went up to a couple of ogre's and asked where the large supply room was hoping that their eyesight was as bad as it was rumored to be as well as their low intelligence. Under her cloak, Spirit's legs were shaking.

"Um we're new recruits and we're trying to get to the dark fire cannons holding tent," Michael said in a creepy voice. The ogres hesitated then pointed them in the direction it was located. They walked through the camp with no problems and reached the tent. They walked into the tent, past the guards, and put the supplies down.

"Bingo," Spirit said looking at the hundreds of cannons. They started setting up the explosives when a dark blur past by Spirit's eyes.

"Michael, watch out," she cried out to him. Michael turned and saw the blur come at him, he shot out a fire rocket at it, but he missed because whatever it was had disappeared. The next thing Michael knew he felt a pain in his chest and went flying into some wooden crates. He looked up and saw a large furry foot connected to an outstretched leg. Then the creature disappeared and reappeared behind Spirit with a bladed staff to her neck. The creature had a skinny muscular body of a human with a mouth like one too but its feet were dog like and from its nose up was the head of what looked like a Doberman. From its mouth, two pointed fangs went past his bottom lip. He was wearing camouflage pants and a green tank top.

"Human witch, I could smell you since you entered the camp. Now you will die," it shouted.

Michael stood up and pulled a splinter out of his arm.

"Who are you?" the wolf said holding Spirit tightly and the blade even closer to her neck, "You have a weird smell about you."

"My name is Michael and I don't think my friend likes the way you're holding her."

The air around Spirits' body started to increase its movement until it was forming a bluish-gray barrier around her.

"Wind Breaker," she yelled out and the barrier expanded and blew out a large gust of explosive air sending the dog demon flying back. He flipped and adjusted his body so that he landed on the wall and then launched himself back at them.

"YOU'LL HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN THAT TO BEAT GENERAL KNIGHTWOLF," he yelled.

"How's this," Michael said while creating a wall of fire in front of him, "let's see if you can dodge this?"

Knightwolf burst through the flames his body on fire. He turned and landed on his feet. He then let out a loud howl and the bright orange flames turned to dark fire.

"DARK WOLVES, COME FORTH," he called out, and the dark flames shot off of his body becoming five dark wolves, "ATTACK!"

Three dark wolves went after Michael and two after Spirit. Spirit pulled out her bow and pulled back on the string spacing her fingers out. Two air arrows appeared on the string.

"Wait for it," she said underneath her breath while waiting for the wolves to be right up on her, "NOW." She fired the arrows and they tore through both wolves. One of the wolves that ran toward Michael jumped into the air and the other two attacked from below. Michael jumped back and then punched the ground in front of him. Pillars of fire rose up from the ground after he punched it incinerating the wolves. Michael stood back up and through the fire; Knightwolf came and stabbed his nails into Michael's abdomen. Michael yelled out from the pain then smiled at him.

"What are you smiling at?" Knightwolf said while giving him a strange look. Michael grabbed his arm and then said, "I already knew you were coming, so I let you hit me." Knightwolf looked surprised.

"Dodge this," Michael said and punched him in the chest releasing three fire rockets which sent him flying back into a steel tent beam. Michael fell to his knees, his wounds slowly healing. Spirit ran to help him up. She put his arm around her neck and they stood up.

"Oh man," Michael, yelled out, "I might heal from it, but it doesn't stop the pain."

"Let us get out of here; the explosive spell tags are set already," Spirit said pulling him toward the tent flap.

"Where do you think you're going?" Knightwolf's voice rang out. He then started to howl a loud high-pitched howl. They both covered their ears, but it did not stop them from hearing the howl. Spirit started to feel dizzy and then past out. Michael tried to pick her up and get her out of there, but also past out and collapsed right beside her.

"Heh," Knightwolf laughed, "No one can escape my howl it's so high pitched it paralyzes its victim."

"You're right Knightwolf," a female voice came from behind him, "but that's only if the person lets you get it out." Knightwolf went to turn around but felt a force push his entire body down making his head slam against the floor knocking him out.

When Spirit woke up all she could see was darkness. She felt as though they were moving and she could hear hoofs beating the ground. She noticed the lack of bands on her arms and legs so Michael must have gotten the two of them out of there. She sat up and a large heavy blanket that smelt of animal fell off her. She looked around and could see that they were in a wagon. There was another lump under another blanket a few feet away from her. She crawled over to it and shook it hard.

"Eh, the world can be saved later," Michael's voice mumbled from underneath.

"Wake Up," Spirit said as she hit the lump. Michael shot up and the blanket fell off. His face was that of being in pain.

"Could you watch where you hit," he whispered then looked around, "Where are we?" A small bat hanging on a bar at the top of the wagon dropped down and flew through the hole at the front of a wagon.

"It's nice to see you alive and well Michael," a female voice said from the front of the wagon. Spirit looked at Michael and mouthed.

"She knows your name."

"It's been awhile, Michelle," Michael said recognizing the voice. He looked at Spirit and gave her a thumb up.

**Chapter 6**

**A New Ally**

"So Michelle, you're the Princess Michelle. Sounds like the Queen of Vampires got downgraded," Michael, said smiling, "How did that happen?" Spirit looked at him shocked.

"Princess . . . Michelle . . . , The Chaos City Princess Michelle, (Michelle pulled off her cloak) you've got to be kidding me, you can't trust her, she's from Chaos City!" Spirit said while glaring at the hole the voice was coming from.

"She just saved us Spirit, and I've known her for a while," Michael said calmly then continued, "How did you know we were there?" Michael poked his head out of the carriage and looked at Michelle and Spirit joined him.

"I could sense both of your auras; your power was leaking out. Speaking of which your power is a lot lower than it used to be, Michael," said Michelle in a wondering sort of way.

"We'll catch up later and then I'll fill you in but right now we need to get back to Diamond Palace and prepare for battle. Michelle grabbed a tighter hold on the reins on yelled, "Giddy-Up."

The horses started galloping faster. Michael and Spirit pulled their heads in and sat down in the wagon.

"How do you know her?" Spirit asked.

"I met her a long time ago. She was a vampire before the change."

"Humph, I don't trust her. I don't trust anyone from Chaos City."

"Is this because of the wars or the marriage coming up to your brother? I have to agree with your father on this one. You seem a little reluctant to lose your only sibling."

"It's just I don't want him to be forced into this . . ."

"Rocky seems to truly like her and she's a good person, maybe he's not being forced into it as much as you think . . ."

Outside the wagon, Michelle heard Michael's last sentence and felt a warm feeling in her heart. She has only felt this feeling once before toward another person a long time ago. That person was now in the wagon behind her. Before a few days ago, she did not even remember Michael but now she remembered almost everything. She could remember the change itself but she could not remember what happened afterwards. Her feelings for Michael took place a long time ago and it would have never worked out. She was over it and now focused on Rocky. It was then after feeling love in her heart, that she decided that she would stop her father at any cost. Even though she called King Taurus her father, he was not her true dad. When the world was changed, she ended up in the Magical Books area of the world. Not knowing what had happened, she did not know why the people around her did not remember anything, and why the world changed. She now found that her surroundings were full of dark magical creatures as strong as she was, some even stronger. She could remember that she was the queen of the Transylvanian vampire tribe, the last of the vampires but besides that, she could not remember anything else. She did not understand how she could be in the midst of a world of so many vampires and gone from once being one of the strongest beings on Earth to so many overpowering her. It was not until hundreds of years after the change that fate smiled upon her. The Queen of Chaos City, Lefeilia von Guteis, found her. She was living in Dark Woods the slave of a powerful tribe of werewolves all of her past was forgotten. The wolves would make her lay out in the middle of the road to stop carriages that came through. When the carriage would stop to see if she was all right, the werewolves would attack slaughtering the lot. The only way she could get any food was to get the scraps they left. Afterwards the werewolves would put her back in chains and they kept a magic necklace of garlic around her neck that stopped her from transforming into bats. It was not until many months past by that the werewolves did it to the wrong carriage. They stopped Queen Lefeilia's royal carriage and were all killed struck down by silver swords. When she saw Michelle, she asked no questions and ordered the guards to bring her with them. She sat in the carriage wrapped in sheets so that the only part of her that was uncovered was her eyes. The guards had covered her up so that her filthy body and torn clothes did not dirty the carriage. She looked at the Queen and could not help but admire her. She reminded her of herself when she was royalty. She opened her mouth and said, "Thank Y. . . ."

"SILENCE, COMMONER," a guard interrupted her; "You are not fit to speak to the Queen."

When they arrived at the castle, the guards took her to a large room with a seventeenth century gothic style theme to it. The servants cleaned her up and gave her new clothes. They left her in the room until later. Once the sky was dark, two of the castles' servants lead her through the castle to the dining room. The King and the Queen were there and it was not until she sat down that the queen spoke. "I am going to speak and you are going to listen to everything I say and then you will get to speak when allowed," she started, "I can sense you are a pureblood vampire not from these parts. I also know that I can make you one of the strongest vampires ever. We have a problem that you can solve. We have no children to take over after we are gone. Therefore, you will be our princess. For now on the entire kingdom will know you as Princess. What is your name?"

"Michelle your Majesty," Michelle said.

"I can tell by the way you behave and present yourself that you were once royalty. "Why were you with those lowly beasts?" Lefeilia asked her.

"My kingdom was lost a long time ago and those beasts captured me, your highness."

"Well I've told you everything I have to tell you for now and I will talk to you again when I hear your lessons progress." The King cleared his throat and then spoke, "If all goes well with your lessons and your training I would like to hope that you will one day call us family. Good Night, Princess Michelle."

They both got up and left. Michelle had not touched the rare steak in front of her while they spoke. She started to eat it and while she was eating, thoughts ran through her head. The Queen could sense she was not from this place, but she could not since her age. If she had sensed her age, she would have known that she was much older than the queen was by thousands of years. It was not until months later that she was able to talk to the queen again. That was after she had aced all of her lessons and defeated both of her instructors in magical and physical training. The queen congratulated her and told Michelle that she was now a true part of the family and that she expected great things from her. Michelle started to travel with her to Diamond Kingdom to talk about trade and commerce with their Queen. She started to look up to the queen and realized that she was a better queen than she herself had been. With Queen Lefeilia helping the King, Chaos City flourished. There was not any conflict between the nations of dark and light magic and all was well for many years. Everything was great until a hundred years ago when Giradot's grandfather took over the throne. King Nero was highly prejudiced toward dark creatures because of a group of goblins that mugged him and his mother when he was little. He banned trading between the two parts for no reason and made a law that any dark magic creatures caught in his land received execution.

A group of rouge vampires attacked a patrol soldier in response to the Kings unfair laws and the King ordered an attack on Onyx Castle. In the attack a dark fire cannon malfunctioned and exploded bringing down the tower the Queen was in and killing her in the process. It was then that Michelle had realized she has lost a mother figure in her life and started to call the King father. After that battle, the King became angry, depressed, and started using dishonorable tactics against Diamond Kingdom.

In the distance, she heard a howl that broke her out of thought. Moonlight lit up the road they traveled. Darkness surrounded them on both sides of the forest. She looked around she could sense something dark approaching them quickly, but could not see anything. She opened her mouth and made a high pitch shrieking sound. In her mind everything she saw went black and white images of her surrounding appeared. She had used her echolocation. That is when she saw them closing in fast.

_Werewolves. _

"I need your help. We have trouble." Michael and Spirit looked out the back of the wagon.

"Why don't we just ditch the wagon?" Michael asked her.

"Because you see those barrels back there," she told them. They turned and looked at four iron barrels in the wagon, "they're talisman fire oil. It is the only thing capable of removing Wes' talismans. If someone hadn't sealed their powers somehow you could have just carried them."

"I said we'll talk about that later, I'll take the reins, you two can hold them off," Michael said climbing up front and taking hold of the reins from Michelle.

"If you knew about Wes, why did you allow him to be captured? He's a friend Michelle," Michael asked her.

"I lost my memory after the change and regained it the day Wes was captured. I did not learn about the attack or his capture until he crashed in the courtyard last night exhausted. He's too highly guarded for me to help him myself, but like you said let's talk later."

Spirit blew off the top of the wagon, grabbed her bow, and started shooting her wind arrows picking them off but more kept coming.

"When dealing with these monsters, you have to take them down more than one at a time. Like this!", Michelle said while lifting her hand straight in front of her, a white ring of magical letters appeared rotating around her hand. She gently put her hand down and ten werewolves fell as if an invisible force had knocked them down. Spirit looked at her confused at what had happened.

"Gravity Magic," Michelle said smiling at her. Spirit thought in her head, "I could do better than that." Spirit created a large tornado in sucking up more than fifteen werewolves and sending them flying.

"Wind Magic," Spirit said with a sarcastic smile back. Two werewolves came from the sides and jumped on the wagon. Spirit created a large gust of wind and blew them off. Unfortunately, she also blew Michelle also and she was hanging onto the wagon by holding on to its side.

She pulled herself up and said, "What the hell was that, you don't use your abilities close up when you're fighting with a partner, you go hand to hand." Spirit gave her a confused look then replied, "I fight like this with Michael all the time."

"You didn't teach her any martial arts," she yelled at Michael angrily. "Compared to the other this student isn't that great." Michael gave her an extremely angry look.

"I'm just saying," Michelle mumbled.

"The other one, what did she mean," Spirit thought but was it was quickly pushed out of her mind.

"This isn't the time or place, Michelle, we need to get rid of those wolves before we reach the canyon," Michael told them. There were still five wolves chasing them down. They had to be the strongest of the pack; they were larger is size than the others and had larger teeth and claws. Michelle and Spirit tried to stop them with gravity magic and wind magic, but these five were faster and kept dodging the spells.

"I have an idea," Spirit told her, "When I give you the signal, unleash your gravity spell." Spirit created a large category three tornado; it tore through the trees and sucked in everything around it including the werewolves. It was so powerful that it started pulling on the wagon.

"Are you nuts?" Michael yelled at her.

"Now, on top of the tornadoes," Spirit yelled. Michelle cast her spell and the tornado collapsed creating two hundred mile per hour winds sending everything flying. It looked like a small bomb had gone off.

It picked up the wagon and the horses sending them flying forward. When they landed back on the road the horses started galloping and pulled the wagon forward. A nerve twitched above Michael's eyebrow.

"What the heck were you thinking doing something like that, you almost got us all killed?" he yelled at them.

"But we got rid of the werewolves," Spirit said in her defense.

"Yes, but the amount of damage you caused and that tornado were like putting up a beacon telling them where we are."

"Calm down Michael," Michelle started, "we're close to the bridge and they won't follow us across it." They traveled on and in a few minutes, they saw the bridge ahead of them and started to cross. A wide, old wooden bridge stretched over a five-mile width over Infinite Canyon. The moonlight lit up the bridge as they crossed it. Spirit looked down into the canyon and whistled. You could not see the bottom of the canyon through the darkness.

Michelle had a bad feeling as a shiver shot down her spine. She used echolocation again toward the end of the bridge that they had just crossed.

WE HAVE TO HURRY, NOW!"

At the end of the bridge, she saw werewolves tearing up the edge of the bridge. They had reached a little over half way of the bridge when the bridge started to slant down. They could hear the load moan of the wood straining from the other side that was still attached. Then the bridge started to break. Pieces were cracking and falling behind them. Then in front of them, a crack was forming.

"We're not going to make it, abandon ship," Michael yelled. They jumped from the wagon. Michael's wings flew out and from Michelle's back bat like wings appeared. Michelle was straining while using gravity magic to keep the heavy talisman oil barrels floating in the air. Spirit was trying to blast wind to push her up but there was nothing to push against and she was falling. Michael dived toward her but was farther up and would not make it in time. Michelle noticed this, released the barrels, and flew down to grab her. She grabbed her hands and Spirit started screaming.

"What are you screaming about, I've got you?" Michelle yelled. There was a look of pure terror on Spirit's face.

"Something else has me," she screamed. Michelle pulled up and found out that she could not. Spirit screamed again.

"DON'T LET GO OF ME, PLEASE DON'T LET GO."

Michael flew down and created multiple fireballs in the canyon lighting it up. From the rocky walls of the canyons below where Spirit and Michelle were furry, slimy tentacles sticking out of holes in the walls and waving around. There was a large hole in the wall and in that large hole; you could see rows of razor sharp teeth spinning. One of the other tentacles had grabbed the two horses from the wagon after it fell. It threw the horses into the hole and blood spewed out from it. This time Michelle joined Spirit in screaming aloud. Michael started to shoot fire rockets at the tentacles, but they did not seem bothered by it.

"MICHAEL YOU BETTER GET US OUT OF HERE OR I'M GONNA PUT IN A VERY BAD WORD FOR YOU WHEN I GET TO HEAVEN," Michelle yelled.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING AND WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO HEAVEN?" Michael yelled.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU JERK?" Michelle yelled back at him. Michael thought for a second. He flew down to the level of the mouth of the monster. One of the tentacles grabbed him.

"MICHAEL, NOOOOOOO!" Spirit screamed.

"Come and eat me, you son of a gun," Michael said. A large light white came from Michael's hand; fire surrounded the light, and turned into a ball. The tentacles pulled him to the mouth and Michael threw the orb into its mouth. The wall started to shake and the monsters' teeth stopped spinning. The tentacles let go of all of them and withdrew back into wall. Michael flew up and grabbed Spirits' other arm. Below them, the wall exploded and greenish slimy liquid oozed from it.

They landed on the Diamond Kingdom side of the bridge and sat down breathing hard. Green slime covered their bodies. They made a feeble attempt at trying to wipe it off with their hands. The tattoos that had appeared during the fight with Wes reappeared but this time they were glowing red. Michael looked at them and then back into the canyon. Michael looked at Michelle and Spirit, stood up, and then said, "You two go ahead and head back to the castle. I have to go back and get those barrels."

"You can't be serious," Spirit told him with an unbelieving look.

"I have to find a way to save Wes, it's the only way besides killing him," Michael told her. Spirit grabbed his hand and pulled him from going back.

"You can't go I don't want to lose you, I love you," Spirit yelled at him and then she kissed him. Michael pulled out of her grip.

"Now is not the time for stuff like that Spirit. Besides be serious it would never work out." He walked back toward the edge of the canyon and turned around. "I'll be back. While I'm gone, Michelle please teach her some martial arts. I'll see you hopefully before the start of the war." He turned and then jumped into the darkness of the canyon leaving Michelle holding a crying Spirit.

**Chapter 7**

**Preparations**

Spirit and Michelle arrived at Diamond Palace just as the sun's rays were peaking over the horizon. When they walked up to the palace gates, guards drew their swords at Michelle but Spirit explained that she was on their side. Soldiers escorted them to the war room in the castle. The king was relieved to see his daughter was back safe, but told Michelle to wait outside the room and told two soldiers to watch over her.

"But she is on our side, she saved my life," Spirit explained, "You can't treat her like she's some criminal."

"It's alright, I understand," Michelle told her, "you can't be so trusting Spirit, this is war, I could have been a spy." She walked outside the room and two guards followed her out. The King walked over to Spirit and hugged her tightly.

"Did you complete your mission," King Giradot asked her, "and where is Michael?" Spirit explained what had happened during their journey and how Michelle helped them escaped. She also told him about Michael's choice to go back for the talisman oil.

"Well while you were gone, we followed Michael's plans, and we are as prepared for this attack as we can be all we can do is hope it was enough," Giradot explained then continued, "Rocky has also recovered. We had one of the best healers come and heal him. You must be tired so why don't you go rest and then we will send for you if anything happens." After Spirit had left the room one of the generals in the room said to Giradot, "But sir, we are nowhere near being done with preparations."

"I know that," Giradot said fiercely, "but it's better that she has hope than fear."

Michelle had been waiting outside the door leaning on the wall across from it. Two guards were nervously standing beside the door looking at her; sweat was beading on their foreheads. When Spirit walked out of the room, she looked at them and said, "I can take it from here."

"Yes, Princess Spirit," they said quickly and went back into the war room.

"What did you do to them?" Spirit asked her looking confused.

"I smiled at them," she said smiling at Spirit showing her two long sharp fangs. Spirit led her to her room. It was a large room with many windows and a large balcony all covered by dark-blue silk curtains.

"If you want to freshen up in my bathroom you can I can wait, we don't have any coffins but my couch has a bed inside," said Spirit kindly, "I had them draw the curtains close because I didn't want the sunlight to hurt you."

"Thanks, but you know you're too trusting of people, how do you know I won't kill you in your sleep," Michelle said smiling at the taken back expression on Spirits face, "And don't worry about the curtains sunlight doesn't bother me." She walked toward the bathroom and turned around Spirits face still looking a little shocked.

"You know I was just kidding, right." Spirits face brightened up and she said with a weak laugh.

"O-of course."

Michelle walked into the bathroom and Spirit hurried to her bedroom door, opened it, and told one of the servants to bring her some garlic which when they returned she put it under her pillow.

Later that day Spirit woke up and noticed someone put his or her arms around her waist. Her heart started racing. She wondered if it was Michael. Had he come back and was finally showing the love she felt for him.

"What do you think you're doing?" she said while turning over to face him.

"Mmmmmmm, Rocky," Michelle said and pulling Spirit closer and kissing her on the lips.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaggghhhhhhh!" Spirits room rang out. The guards bursting in swords drawn, "Princess Spirit is everything all ri . . ." they said stopping in their tracks at the scene of two women in bed together. Spirit rose up her eyes burning with fire at the smiles on some of the guards faces.

"GET OUT," she screamed sending a powerful burst of wind lifting them off their feet and throwing them out of the room.

"What the heck were you doing in my bed," Spirit yelled at Michelle.

"Your couch was lumpy," she replied rubbing sleep out of her eyes and getting out of the bed. Michelle changed into some of Spirits clothes since she did not have any with her. She chose a pair of black pants with a red shirt. Spirit put on a pair of blue work out shorts and a white shirt with the word Angel on it. Pants size they were about the same. However, chest size was a complete difference. Pulling against Spirits shirt, which left her stomach exposed Michelle asked, "You don't have any larger shirts; this one is kind of tight." Spirit looked at her chest and scowled. "She's lucky," she thought somewhat jealously.

Minutes later, they headed down to the training ground where she trained with Michael.

"All right Michael wanted me to teach you martial arts. We don't have much time, so we're going to use extreme measures to train," she said while walking around her, "since you specialize in wind attack I think the best thing for you to learn will be capture and severing techniques and I'm going to have you create a different weapon using your abilities."

"What do you mean create a weapon," Spirit asked looking puzzled.

"The last guardian of the wind could separate the particles in the air. He took the carbon particles out of carbon dioxide and combined the particles tightly to create a sword," Michelle responded. First, we need to work on your strength and speed.

"And how are we going to do that," Spirit said, "working out is going to take too long to show any results."

"Oh this won't be any regular workout," Michelle laughed, "It's gonna be a workout from HELL!" She snapped her fingers and Spirit fell to the ground.

"W-w-what are you d-doing, t-to me," Spirit strained to say. She felt as though an invisible force was pushing her down.

"I've increased the gravity in this entire dome so that you weigh 10 times your normal weight and every ten minutes it will increase by fifty pounds, it would have been less but you're so light," Michelle replied standing there not breaking a sweat.

"Why isn't it bothering you," Spirit asked her angrily.

"Because," Michelle answered with a smirk, "I'm strong enough to handle it." Spirit looked at her in amazement.

"So on with your training," Michelle started, "before I teach you any techniques. You are going to have to create a solid weapon and cut me with it. If you don't in one hour, you will die, from the gravity crushing you."

Spirit pushed hard against the moist dirt beneath her. Drops of sweat dripping from the tip of her nose, the muscles in her arms sore with pain from straining to pick her up, she was maybe an inch or two from the ground before the gravity slammed her face back into the dirt. She yelled aloud, angry, and swearing. If she could lift her hand, she would have beaten it against the ground in protest. She glared at Michelle with drips of sweat cutting through the dirt on her face then dropping down creating small craters in the ground beneath her.

"Glaring at me like that isn't going to get you up," Michelle said with a smug smile on her face.

"And what's this suppose to help me accomplish," Spirit yelled out angrily, "Michael told you to train me in martial arts not give me survival techniques for another planet."

"This part of your training can do either one of two things," Michelle explained, "It could do either one: make you stronger and faster, or two: make you use your abilities to overcome your lack of strength and speed. I already know how you can use your guardian abilities to escape. So it's up to you to either become smarter or stronger."

Spirit closed her eyes and calmed herself down. She thought to herself.

"If she knows how I can escape this using my abilities then I need to figure it out as well."

Spirit concentrated and felt the wind pick up around her. She gasped from surprise and it stopped. That was the first time the wind around her reacted to her without her first casting a spell. At a young age, she had mastered silent wind spells, which were, spells cast by saying the spell in your mind. She concentrated again focusing only on the air and it picked up around her going even faster. She sped the wind up enough to pick her up some off the ground and she kept thinking for the wind to blow on her harder. She started to rise her face was two inches from the ground then six. Then it was a foot, then two, she was on her knees. Spirit started to smile, in her mind she was psyched she was going to stand. She went to get up but suddenly felt exhausted both physically and mentally. The wind around her stopped and she fell hard right back to the ground.

Michelle looked at her somewhat surprised and said, "That was the first time you were using your abilities as a guardian wasn't it. So far, you have only been using the magic of this land as a kickstand to support your Guardian abilities. Not bad, but you're not going to be able to get up just by doing that."

"Why am I feeling so exhausted?" Spirit asked her voice sounded too tired to speak.

"Because when you use your Guardian abilities, you use your body and mind, you are your element. If you stuck a thermometer in Michael you'd get a temperature around three hundred and fifty degrees, while if you poked Wes with a knife it would bend from his rock like strength and skin." Spirit looked at her still confused. "Michael can be engulfed in flames and not be burned! Wes's dragon form is a stone dragon! Come on think about it," Michelle said while tapping her temple. Spirit thought for a second and then her face lit up with realization.

"I have to become my element and to do that I must become like the wind. But how in the world do I do that?" Spirit concentrated and thought about all she knew about the wind. How free and flowing it is and how it supports life and how it destroys it. Then it hit her, her arrows how she charges them up using the wind-grabbing spell. Therefore, she concentrated trying to charge herself up. The air around her whipped and around and sped up eighty, one hundred, one hundred-fifty, two hundred miles per hour. Michelle jumped back into a tree about a hundred feet back and held on. The trees in front of her swayed and many snapped like toothpicks. Spirits body started to glow a light blue color. Her body started to feel funny; she started to try to stand up and realized her legs were missing and that the rest of her body was fading away into the wind. She screamed as her face started to disappear until there was nothing there.

The wind died down until there was nothing but a gentle breeze flowing through the area. Michelle jumped down and ran to the spot where Spirit just was and looked around. Thoughts were racing through her head and she was starting to panic. She was afraid Spirit was gone and she was even more afraid of what Michael would do if he came back and found out she was responsible.

"SPIRIT," she yelled out, "where are you." No answer. "SPIRIT"

"M-Michelle," Spirit's echoed voice called out, "I don't know what I did, but it's like I'm everywhere. I don't know how to pull myself back into one."

"Just focus on one point and try to come back at that point," Michelle told her.

"Okay, I'll try," Spirit said her voice echoing around Michelle.

A small blue light appeared while floating in air a few feet away from Michelle. The wind around the light swirled around it like a tornado, but in the middle of the min-tornado, you could see the shape of a human being formed out of the wind. When the tornado disappeared, Spirit was standing there smiling at Michelle.

"You're standing," Michelle said shocked, "How are you doing that?"

"I'm not all the way solid, molecules of me are still spread out, so I'm kind of like a ghost," Spirit said. Michelle laughed, "Well I guess you pass then time for round two of your training."

Michelle stood in a fighting stance and said, "Your second lesson is to cut me with a blade made from wind."

"A blade made from wind?" Spirit repeated while remembering what Michelle said earlier. "Why can't I just use my bow and wind arrows?" Spirit asked.

"Because bows are only good for long distance combat if someone comes up close to you it's over," Michelle said confidently.

"No it is not I can fight off anyone using my bow," Spirit argued back.

"Okay if that's what you think then come on," Michelle said.

"Oh I will then I'll get out of that second lesson," Spirit replied.

Spirit looked at her and suddenly vanished from in front of Michelle in a flash of blue light. "Wow she's already mastered that move, huh, as expected of a Guardian," Michelle thought, "but she's still a rookie I can handle her no problem." Spirit landed in some trees ten feet away from Michelle and used a summon spell to teleport her broom to her. She tried to pick it up but could not remove it from the ground. A large orb was sitting over Spirits head. She looked up and quickly teleported. The orb hit the ground creating a large crater. She reappeared in the trees then started firing wind arrows at her while jumping and using her new wind teleporting technique to get from tree to tree. Michelle was running and dodging while trying to get a lock on Spirits location. However, she could not get a lock on her location since she was moving around so fast.

"Crap," Michelle whispered under her breath, "she's really good. I did not expect to have to do this." Michelle lifted her hand and her gravity spell ring appeared around her hand, a large orb of distorted air hovered above half the dome and she brought it down hard. All the trees under the orb exploded and sent debris and dust flying up then slamming back down from the gravity. Spirit let out a loud scream within the landing area of the dome. When all the dust had cleared, cuts lined Spirits' body, along with scratches, and kneeling on one of her knees holding her right leg. A large piece of wood impaled itself sideways through her calf muscle. She grabbed it and slowly pulled it out and let out a bloodcurdling scream. Blood started pouring out of it, while she tried to heal it some. She was not a medical witch so all she could do was stop the bleeding. She stood up and wobbled a little Michelle ran forward and punched her back down.

"What are you doing, trying to kill me," Spirit yelled out after she tumbled, "I'll do your stupid lesson just help me with my leg." When Spirit looked at Michelle's face, her expression was different. Her fangs were showing and her nails were longer and sharper. She let out an evil laugh while she was walking up to her and then said, "Foolish Girl, I'm going to kill you now and destroy this country."

Spirit looked around and noticed that it was darker in the dome. The sides of the dome were black and the only sun light was pouring in through the top. No one could see in and she could not see out. She started to back crawl away. Michelle ran forward and slashed Spirit with her claws creating five long gashes across her chest. Spirit cried out then disappeared and reappeared a hundred feet away and started firing wind arrows at her. Michelle ran forward dodging all of her arrows. Spirit created small tornadoes and sent them at her. Nevertheless, Michelle kept coming, since the winds had no effect on her since she increased the gravity on herself so that the wind failed to blow her away. Spirit started to run backwards while firing on her but Michelle caught up due to her leg injury slowing her down. Michelle reached out, slashed, and broke her bow. Spirit stumbled back from the blow and fell onto the ground. Michelle went forward to slash again, but stopped before she reached Spirit who had sent out a gush of blue glowing wind. The wind had turned into a large solid spike and pierced through Michelle's abdomen and at the other end Spirits' hand was holding onto it. Michelle burst into a bunch of bats and then reformed feet away without any form of injury. She ran at Spirit again, Spirit had no energy and closed her eyes waiting for the blow to come.

After a few seconds, she opened them and saw sunlight flowing through the dome and Michelle's hand outstretched reaching to pull her up, a smile on her face.

"You passed." Michelle healed Spirits wounds and said, "Sorry I had to go so rough on you but I knew that was the only way to get you to bring out your best." Spirit looked at her and grabbed her hand.

"The purpose for creating blades from wind is to assist in your wind attacks. It's more effective in slowing down a powerful opponent if you trap them in a tornado made from wind that will cut them than just a regular tornado," Michelle told her as she lifted her up.

They worked on mixing wind attacks with Martial Arts until the sun started to fall low. When they walked out the soundproof dome, they could hear loud yells, screaming, and explosions in the distance. They ran toward a cliff that overlooked the palace. In the distance below, they could see fire everywhere and holes in the castle walls from cannons and catapults, the battle between Diamond Kingdom and Chaos City was already in progress.

"This can't be happening," Spirit whispered as though lost for breath.

"It seems that my helping you sped up the attack day. Well it looks like we'll get to see what you learned," Michelle responded sadly, as she watched an ogre throw a soldier through the air like a rag doll. Spirit pulled her broom out of her hat.

"Funny I always thought only rabbits came out of there," Michelle said. They both jumped on and flew down into the battlefield below.

**Chapter 8**

**Caught off Guard**

Yells and roars became louder as Spirit and Michelle flew closer to the battle.

"Crap I can't believe they started early," Michelle shouted over the loud roar of the battle beneath them. Spirit created a multiple tornadoes beneath them taking out the second brigade of werewolves and goblins that were heading to join their forces but it also brought attention to them. A group of vampires rose into the air gliding around them. Saliva dripping from there fangs, their claws extended into sharp blades, and their black tattered capes billowing in the wind. Spirit started to shoot arrows while trying to balance the broom. She hit a few and they fell back to the ground but could not get a decent shot at any more. Michelle raised both of her hands out on her side. Magic rings flowing around both and threw her hands down all of the vampires dropped out of the sky like flies being swatted by an invisible swatter. Spirit could finally see Michelle's attack. When the rings around her wrist glowed, it created an orb like distortion in the air above her target. When she lowered her hands, the orbs would fall down slamming the target to the ground. Below them the trolls, goblins, and werewolves kept marching on to attack the castle. Goblin archers below them started to fire arrows lit in fire from crossbows at them as they flew toward the castle. Michelle tried to send them back down by using a gravity spell but the arrows went right through it.

"Crap they're covered in magic neutralizing fire," Michelle yelled to Spirit. Spirit turned the broom's tip vertical and flew up avoiding most of the flaming arrows but one finally hit the tail of the broomstick causing it to burst into flames. Michelle jumped off and flew into the air grabbing Spirit off the broom, which landed in the fighting soldiers below. The goblins fired again at the two as they were in the air. Michelle could not dodge well while holding on to Spirit.

"We're going down," Michelle told Spirit.

"WHAT," Spirit shouted, "Are you crazy?"

"Calm down and concentrate on the moves that we practiced today," Michelle told her. Michelle let her go around fifty feet from the ground. As she fell, Spirit put her legs in a kicking position. Streams of wind started to form around her leg and grew larger and larger until there was a mini tornado around it.

"TORNADO KICK," she shouted. When she struck the ground below it sounded like, an explosion had gone off on the field. The wind from the move blew everything within thirty feet of her away into the air and away from her. The ground itself had a spiral imprint in it. Michelle landed beside her and both of them got into fighting stances. Spirit formed a wind barrier around them.

"Nice move," Michelle told her.

"So what's the plan," Spirit said breathing heavily and looking at the closing in dark monsters.

"There is not one, take out as many as possible," Michelle replied. Spirit blew out the wind barrier blowing away any monsters near it. Two large orbs of blue light surrounded Michelle's hands. She lifted her hands up and around twenty of the Werewolves and trolls, surrounding them rose into the air, floating as though pulled by some invisible force. The werewolves tried to claw the air trying to reach the ground. The trolls looked dazed and confused.

"I did not' know you could do that," yelled Spirit while she was fighting off two six-foot tall trolls. The trolls slammed their heavy clubs into the ground but Spirit rolled out of the way dodging both. She jumped on the club, ran up the troll's thick arm, and stood on his shoulders. The other troll lifted its club and slammed the troll in the head with it after Spirit jumped off.

"You didn't ask," Michelle said as she slammed them down to the ground on top of the other troll. Spirit ran forward punching a crocotor in its chest while releasing a burst of wind from it sending it flying into an orc.

In the distance across the field, standing opposite of the castle there was a wooden tower. It stood there for King Taurus to view the battle. A short grayish skin, goblin with a long hairy nose came up to the King giving him a report. Taurus was looking at the battlefield. A sinister smile spread across his face at the damage and destruction caused by the battle to the Diamond Kingdom. His eyes lit up with the fires spread across the battlefield from the flaming catapults hitting the castle walls. There were holes in the castle walls. He had laughed aloud as he watched the archers from the top fall as the walls beneath them grew unstable. Loud roars and screams rang out throughout the field. A large tornado formed onto the field and moved across it taking out more than a fifty people. His eyes followed where it came from and he saw a growing clearing in the middle of the battlefield. He pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked to see who was causing this. Looking at Spirit and Michelle fighting out there made his mouth twitched but he continued to smile. He turned his attention to the talking goblin in front of him; he had not listened to a word it was saying.

"Release it from its cage and tell the other one that its time he played his part," Taurus ordered it.

"Reelleeeasssse it?" the goblin hissed out. Taurus nodded. The goblin snapped his finger and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Taurus smiled harder victory was in the palm of his hand.

"Nice tornado," Michelle yelled over the loud roar of the battle to Spirit, "Make four of them going into all directions and we can take a good bit of them out."

"I'll try, will you be okay," Spirit asked loudly. Michelle laughed, "I'm not going anywhere." Her feet had the same spell circles as her hands. Spirit focused her energy to the point that her hands glowed a light-blue color she clapped them together then threw them straight out to her sides. Four small tornadoes formed around them sucking up and throwing dark monsters around. Michelle raised her arms high. Her spell rings started to glow brightly around her wrist and then she brought them down. Monsters in the air came crashing down hard against the ground and other monsters. They both smiled and looked happy.

"We did it!" Spirit yelled. As she looked past Spirit, Michelle's smile fell as a large flapping sound became louder. Spirit turned and looked up. In the air above them, Taurus was riding a dragon covered in talismans. A red light was forming in his mouth and getting brighter. Michelle looked up in amazement and said, "Wes what have they done to you." A large flame shot out of his mouth, Spirit put out a gust of wind that cut the flame in half.

"We need to signal Michael," Michelle yelled to Spirit. "He's the only one that could take him down."

"There's a flare launcher on the north tower," Spirit answered her. They turned around and went through the castle walls. Wes rose up over the castle wall and followed them through the courtyard launching fireballs at them.

"Get them, strike them down," Taurus was yelling at Wes. Spirit and Michelle ran into the castle and Wes landed outside the door. Taurus jumped off him and ran into the castle after them. Spirit grabbed a broom out of the broom closet and jumped on, Michelle jumped on the end. They rose up into the castle and up the stairs. Taurus grabbed a talisman and threw it down onto the ground. It emitted a purple light and a giant crow appeared. Taurus jumped onto its back and chased after them. They shot up the stairs, went down a hallway, and went up to a spiral staircase. Taurus threw three talismans into the air. Each talisman turned into three black arrows making nine arrows. They floated in the air around Taurus.

"I'll give you one last chance Michelle to give up and I'll forgive you for turning your back on us," Taurus yelled at her.

"I'll never give up," she replied, "your wrong for attacking them." Taurus swelled up after hearing her response.

"FIRE," he shouted and the arrows flew at them. Spirit looked at them and dodged most of them easily but one came so close that it went through Michelle's hair and cut a strip of it. Michelle turned around on the broom angrily to face him and her spell bands lit up around her wrist.

"Now, now Michelle," Taurus said nervously, "We were once like family you know." Michelle lifted her hand and an orb appeared above Taurus. She dropped it down and he and the crow fell back down the staircase. They reached the top of the tower and they jumped off the broom.

"Do you think sending up a flare will work," Spirit asked turning to Michelle for ideas.

"Use your abilities to spell something," Michelle answered quickly. Spirit grabbed the flare launcher and pointed it toward Dark Woods. She pulled back on the launchers trigger firing the flare into the air. She then used the wind to spread out the flames in the air so that it spelt S M X.

"What are you sending a flare over there for," Taurus's voice rang out nastily; "There's no more traitors in Chaos City that will help you." He was rising into view over the edge of the balcony as Wes flew up. Spirit and Michelle jumped onto the broom and flew over the balcony around Wes. His tail swung out and hit the back of the broom causing it to go out of control spinning toward the ground. They landed right outside the castle's guard walls back where the soldiers were fighting. Wes was hovering right in front of them a yellow light glowed from his mouth.

A large beam shot from the dragon's mouth and hit the ground in front of Spirit. Michelle ran and pushed Spirit out of the way. When Spirit got up, she looked at Michelle and gasped. Michelle and half of Diamonds City's forces that the beam had touched instantly turned into stone.

The dragon landed and Taurus looked at the stone troops smiling. He then looked around at his own fallen troops.

"You thought you could win. I hate to burst your bubble, Princess, but this is only the beginning," Taurus laughed at Spirit who stood frozen in fear. He reached into his robes pocket and pulled out a talisman. He threw it in the air and it multiplied into hundreds of talisman papers.

"Raise the fallen," he called out and the talismans fell down attaching themselves to the fallen dark creatures. The dark creatures got up slowly and looked dazed and confused as if they had no control over themselves. The talismans took control of the dark soldiers body and forced them to fight on no matter how wounded they were. A third line of attack was approaching from the rear.

"DESTROY IT ALL!" he screamed at them. The soldiers ran forward toward the palace walls the palace soldiers that had slain the monsters were already tired and some were wounded they could not stand any more attacks.

"Retreat to behind the castle walls," a general yelled out.

"Do you think that will stop me?" Taurus yelled out while laughing, "Tear it down."

The dragon roared and the ground in front of it rose up creating rock formations that broke through the palaces' guard walls. Some of the archers on top of the walls fell down to the ground. Spirit got to her feet, air teleported in front of Wes, and stood between him and the castle. Taurus looked at Spirit and laughed, "You think you can beat me, this dragon, and all these troops."

"She won't be alone," a voice rang out above her. Spirit looked up and saw Rocky and Giradot coming from a teleportation spell high in the sky above her. Both of their weapons glowed white as they slashed at the ground. A giant X made of light lit up the field causing many of the vampires to disintegrate instantly. On top of the castle, you could see a magic circle and six spell casters were surrounding it while chanting a lunar barrier spell. A bright blue light shot from the circle and caused heavy clouds to form blocking the moon. More than a third of Dark City's army was werewolves and without the moon to power them, they became powerless and collapsed from exhaustion when they became humans. Rocky came down with his sword blazing with fire and struck the dragons head with all of his strength. Sparks flew from the point of impact and though there was no damage done to the dragon's skin, the force made the dragon stumbled backwards in a daze.

Giradot came down his golden sword glinting and landed on the dragon, then cut the straps holding the saddle that Taurus sat on. Taurus jumped off the saddle and stood on top of the dragon. He pulled out two talismans that became swords and charged at Giradot. Giradot swung his large sword at Taurus who blocked but the force of the swing pushed him back and made him jump off of the dragon to avoid falling. Giradot jumped off after him. The dragon stood up shaking its head and went to rise back up into the air. His large wings started flapping and it raised a couple of feet.

"Don't let it get airborne," Rocky called out to Spirit.

Spirit's hands turned blue again and the wind started blowing down on the dragon. Sparks emitted from the dragon's skin. Spirit was using blades of winds to keep it down. It could not handle the weight and landed. Rocky jumped on and started to hit any soft spot of skin he could find. Spirit pulled her bow from off her back and started shooting arrows at its face. The dragon was in a frenzy trying to reach for Rocky but every time it turned its head, it would get a wave of arrows at the side of its face. It let out a loud earsplitting roar and a wave of energy erupted from it that threw Rocky off and knocked everyone around it off his or her feet and to the ground. A cloud of dust covered the area. Spirit stood back up her bottom sore and looked around to see what had happened. The ground beneath her started to shake violently. Spirit floated off the ground and looked behind her. The guard wall around the castle was collapsing. Large spikes of earth flew out of the ground below her and she had to fly up higher pushing the air below her harder. She heard a yell from Rocky and Giradot. When the dust had cleared, she looked to the ground and saw Rocky surrounded in a stone spike cage and Giradot had a spike driven through his abdomen.

"FATHER!" Rocky yelled. Giradot looked at Spirit and Rocky tried to speak but couldn't, tears flowed from his eyes as he grabbed his daughter's hands as she floated next to him, he then closed his eyes and his body went limp.

Tears poured from her eyes as she landed on the ground. The dragon was nowhere in sight. Taurus stood there bruised and laughing at the sight. Anger rose throughout Spirits body and she turned and ran toward Taurus. She put her fist back to hit him but could not pull it forward.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you a voice came from behind Spirit and she felt a fist hit her back and send her crashing to the ground. Her body fell hard to the ground, bounced up, and then rolled a few feet. Pain surged throughout her body. Her lip cut, her body bruised and scratched, and her strength was leaving her. She heard footsteps around her and felt something rough and hard grab her around her neck and lift her. Her left eye was too puffy to open. She opened her right eye and saw a large stone claw like hand holding her neck. Taurus walked up to her and Wes looking at the beaten look on Spirits face.

"I've waited for this day forever, Princess. I've finally won." He let out a maniacal laugh.

**Chapter 9**

**Stronger than Before**

Spirit could not do anything her strength was gone and she could barely stay conscious.

A large rocket shaped out of fire slammed against Wes' arm making him drop Spirit. Streaks of fire spread across the battleground and then bars of flames rose up entrapping the entire Chaos Army in a cage of fire. Before Wes knew it, a pair of arms had wrapped around his waist lifted him up, bent him over backwards, and slammed his head into the ground. A second fire-rocket sent Taurus flying back against a large piece of the broken castle wall. His head slammed up against it hard knocking him out. St. Michael stood there his coat and the feathers of his wings flapping in the wind. He flew up lifted Giradot off the spike and brought him down to the ground.

"Damn, it's too late. I can't heal him," he said while examining the wound, "I'm sorry King Giradot, but I'll make it up to you by saving the kingdom and protecting the people of it."

Wes stood back up on his feet. Michael stood back up and charged forward. He roundhouse kicked him in his face hard knocking Wes backwards.

"Look at what he's making you do Wes, you have to wake up," Michael yelled.

He then rose into the air his wings spread out and fire engulfed his arms and filtered into his palms. Within seconds, he formed a large ball of fire in his hands. He sent the huge fireball out of his hands toward Wes. The ground rose up and formed a shield around him taking the blast. Spikes rose up out of the ground again and tried to hit Michael. He flew around and out maneuvered them. Wes flew into the air and his stone arm glowed with a yellowish brown light. Rocks flew out of the ground and rose into the air. Michael flew away from the battlefield and Wes chased him. He started sending rocks flying after him. Michael formed a group of fire rockets that intercepted the rocks and prevented them from reaching him. Michael looked behind him to make sure Wes was still following him. Wes was nowhere in sight. Michael turned to look ahead and saw something shiny before it smashed into his face. Michael felt some of his teeth come out of their sockets and his face bones break along with his jaw. He went flying back into a tree that cracked and fell at impact, but the momentum kept going and he went through another three trees. He stood back up feeling the bones in his face reconnect and his ribs fix themselves. Wes flew toward him his stone fist had changed into a diamond fist. Before Michael had a chance to get up and regain composure, Wes started wailing into him. Beating his body and face Michael's bones kept breaking, he had punctured lungs and he could feel blood running into his head. Michael looked behind Wes as a huge pillar of fire came pouring down on them. He pushed Wes up toward the flame and sent flames at him from below. Wes let out a loud yell of pain. The fire burned his wings, stomach, and back. When the attack ended and he fell to the ground, he rolled onto the ground trying to put out the flames on his back and Michael whispered, "Recover." A white light poured out from him and his body healed instantly.

"You couldn't do that before," Wes said as he stood back up giving him a curious look, "and you had to draw a symbol to do that fire pillar thing last time. You've become stronger."

"You're right, I have," replied Michael, "I have seals on my body that control the amount of my abilities and strength I have. The orb of flames can release the limiter seals I place on myself. There is one in each of the regions of earth. In the canyon that separates Diamond and Chaos City was where one of pieces landed when I blew it apart."

Wes charged at him. Michael flew up dodging him, flew toward a big bubble in front of them, and stopped right in front of it.

"It's about time you stopped running."

Wes' dragon hand turned into a sharp lance made of diamond. He pointed it at Michael and increased his speed. Michael sucked in his wings and the seal formed on his trench coat. He dropped quickly to the ground while Wes went through the bubble like dome. It was the training dome. Michael touched a marking on the dome. Wes turned and tried to fly out and could not. He hit the dome as hard as he could but it did not budge.

"This is our training dome," Michael said smiling, "Things can go in but once this button is pushed nothing can come out. If you look around there is about four containers of talisman removal oil, which is highly flammable. One would have been enough but hey why take a chance." Michael put his hand in and snapped his fingers igniting them. Inside the training dome exploded. Clouds of smoke billowed up to the domes walls and then the domes automatic fire extinguishers came on.

When the smoke had cleared, Wes was laying down in the middle of the dome talisman free. Michael looked at him and heard a loud explosion from the battlefield and the ground shook below him.

"What the heck," he said startled and then looked back at Wes, the talismans on his body were gone, "I would see if your okay, but knowing your rock like skin that probably only stunned you, nice to know your back Wes." His wings flew out and he rose back into the air toward the castle.

After Michael had left, Spirit had gotten up shakily to her feet and walked slowly to her brothers' sword she picked it up and brought it to him collapsing in front of the cage. Rocky swung it and after a few hits, he broke through the stone. Rocky picked up Spirit and carried her to Giradot's body. They both looked at their father and wept.

"At least the battle is over," Spirit told him as she wiped tears off her face.

The cages of fire Michael had made did not affect the kingdom's soldiers. There were soldiers rounding up the caged enemies and taking care of any remaining monsters. The sky was starting to get lighter and dawn was coming. They had fought through the night.

A bright green wave of light traveled in a vertical, straight line cut across the ground toward the castle. It went right through the middle of the castle itself. As the green light traveled across the ground, it created a five-foot deep trench behind it.

A young man with a large sword and white hair walked through the battlefield but he was floating five feet off the ground. It looked like he was walking on an invisible platform. A few of the soldiers went to run his way to stop the intruder. He pulled the sword off his back and twirled it around with ease, touched a button and the sword split in half vertically and spread apart into two blades with a barrel in the middle of the two. He pointed the sword at the ground and pulled the trigger. Instead of a bullet firing out of it, a red light shot out of the barrel. A large hole formed by the shot caused the ground to shake as though an earthquake had occurred. Everyone standing in the entire battlefield flew up into the air and fell at least five feet away from where they were standing. He walked toward the castle and swung his blade horizontal as another green light flew across the castle. At first it did not seem like anything had happened and then the castle split into four pieces and the walls fell to the ground. The entire castle lay in ruins. All that was standing was the Kings' throne. He walked up to it and kicked off the chair sending it flying into the distance. There was a floating, glowing white, flat key like object where the throne used to be.

Michael flew out to the field and looked around, "How in the world. . . . " He flew toward the castle. The young man picked up the key and looked at Michael flying toward him.

"I don't like angels," he said nonchalantly. Michael felt a wave of invisible energy hit him. He felt a weird sensation on his back as his wings disappeared and he fell to the ground. He landed on his feet and looked up. The young man's' swords collapsed back into one. He threw it in front of him and it floated horizontally. He stood on it and flew away so fast into the darkness that he was a blur.

"It's true there are keys to open the tower," Michael told himself. The castle laid in ruins, the king was dead, and a key stolen. The feeling of defeat was settling into his heart.

"I've failed," Michael said aloud dropping to his knees.

"No you haven't," Rocky said walking over to him with Spirit. She was leaning on Rocky with her arm around his neck to hold herself up.

"What's important is that the people of Diamond Kingdom are safe," Spirit said looking at the village behind the castle. Villagers were coming out of two large secret trees in that led down to a shelter with an evacuation route. "That's what dad would have wanted."

Michael touched Spirit and said, "Recover." Spirit's body glowed with a white light and her scratches, bruises, and bones healed.

"There's no chance that you can do that to our dad," Rocky asked hopefully.

"I'm sorry, he's already passed on," Michael said sadly.

"What about Michelle," Spirit asked her face looking worried.

"That is also out of my hand," Michael told her a smirk growing on his face, "but it's right up his alley." Thirty feet behind Michael walking out of the forest and across the battlefield was Wes. There were not any talismans on his body and he looked around at the battlefield and the castle with a sad look on his face. Soldiers around that area of the field quickly backed away from him in fear. He walked right up to Spirit and Rocky while looking at the ground. He got on both knees in front of them and bowed his head.

"I'm sorry for all the pain and sorrow I have caused. I did not have any control over my actions but I could see everything that I did. If you want to take my life or punish me for the damage I will not resist," Wes said his voice full of sadness. Michael looked at Spirit and Rocky. Spirit looked at Wes tears streamed down her eyes. Rocky reached over his back for his sword. He grabbed it and swung it over his shoulder. He held it out in front of him over Wes and then stabbed it into the ground in front of him.

"Anyone who has no control over their actions that would offer their life to make up for the damage that someone else forced them to do couldn't have an evil bone in their body," Rocky told him confidently and then bowed to him.

"Please just free my future wife and my soldiers."

Wes stood up and waved his dragon like hand in the direction of the soldiers and Michelle. They turned back into normal and looked around confused.

"My request is, please help us rebuild our castle," Spirit asked him as Michelle ran toward them. They all surveyed the damage around them and it looked like they had their work cut out for them.

**Chapter 10**

**Journey to a New Land**

A month has passed since the battle at Diamond City. After his trial, King Taurus received the death penalty. The court hung him two days after the war ended. Giradot's burial came a few days afterwards. A huge funeral service took place in which the entire kingdom attended as his body descended into in a large white tomb in the graveyard. The castle returned to its former glory thanks to a combination of Wes', Michael's, and Michelle's abilities. A week after the funeral, coronation took place as Rocky became the king of Diamond Kingdom and Michelle became his queen. Their wedding ceremony was huge and included guests from both Diamond and Chaos City, which have now combined in peace to form Infinity Kingdom. Spirit, Michael, Wes, and Michelle have all been training. They all plan to take a trip to Tech City in Silicon Country and to do that they have to cross Nova Desert to get there.

"I want a Rematch," Wes said to Michael while walking through the castle on the night before their journey. Wes had been saying this every day since a week after the attack.

"I'm not going to fight you again, Wes," Michael told him calmly.

"Oh, come on, it is not fair, you were always the only one strong enough to train with me," he said annoyed.

"Will you let it go already, Wes," Spirit said, "damn, you're so annoying." Even though someone else had control Wes, Spirit still felt a little angry with him for her fathers' death. She learned that Wes considered Michael not only his best friend but also his biggest rival. During the construction of the castle, Wes often challenged Michael to contests in strength and always wanted to spar with him during training.

"Well tomorrow is the day," Michael said.

"Okay so I know I've been stuck in a mountain for who knows how long," started Wes.

"And I've been stuck in caves and a castle," Michelle interrupted coming around a corner in the castle hallway. Wes continued, "What in the world has been going on? What do these keys do and what is this tower? Why is it that I couldn't remember any of you until that white haired guy showed up and captured me?"

"There's a legend that the orb that changed the world is still out there and that these keys once they are all together open a tower that's somewhere in the world. It's believed that inside this tower is the orb. No one knows where the orb came from. I believe that it's from some advanced alien race. All I know is that you can wish whatever you want and from the way the world looks now, I believe it could make anything happen. "

"We don't know who this guy is but he's not someone I want making a world altering wish," said Spirit "not after what he did to the castle."

"You still don't have an idea on who this guy is?" Wes asked. "I mean he's at Guardian type strength already, if not stronger."

"From what I can tell, he's a negate type fighter. There are only a few of them out there. Meaning he negates the powers in this world and can absorb any of them. Since I placed power-limiting spells on my body, I use the magic in this world to support my wings. He negated that power and made my wings disappear."

"If this world is based on a wish to be like stories then why is all this bad stuff going on it?" Michelle asked Michael with her eyebrows raised. Everyone stopped walking and looked at him. The look on his or her faces said that it was the question on everyone's mind. Michael thought for a second.

"The reason why this world isn't full of happiness and love," he began, "is because of the fear and sadness that the boy felt when he made the wish." The boy had lost his mother and father. Someone chased and shot at him. These feelings all went into the wish. So we wound up feeling the dark sides of stories as well as the good sides."

"How did you find out what had happened," Wes asked him somewhat suspiciously.

"The angels told me when they came down to fix the damage," he answered him.

"Then why did they let the change happen in the first place," Michelle demanded then said while looking at Spirit, "I'm not saying that I don't like this place, but I spent years as a slave to werewolves."

"They didn't know what the orb was plus they were preoccupied with something else at the time," Michael told her confidently. He felt like they were harassing him for something out of his control.

"So we are going to Tech City, right," Spirit asked Michael calmly while trying to lighten up the mood.

"To stop that guy from getting the key," said Michelle, "Why don't we just keep it?"

"There's a couple of reasons that is a bad idea," Michael began, "one is because of temptation, another is because it would make it easier for someone to get all the keys if they were in one place, also . . . "

"We get the picture," Michelle replied.

"Well then we should get some rest, so tomorrow we can get going," Wes said excited. They all went their separate ways to their rooms.

Wes went into his room in the palace. Rocky had been nice and forgiving of his actions after Michael explained the situation. Walking past the mirror on the dresser, he looked at himself. He had not aged or grown any in the last twenty millenniums. He like Michael knew what it felt like to have the power of living for a long time. He had seen many friends come and go. He felt a little grateful toward the kid that made the wish. In the real world, it was hard to keep it a secret that he was immortal. He had to change his entire identity every ten years and he was always on the move. His eyes looked at his lower arm and hand and winced at the look of it. His wings unlike Michaels' poked out from his back and caused him minor discomfort when they came out while Michaels' just magically appeared. He yawned and stretched them out. He thought of how some of the kids from the village looked at him in amazement and some in fear when he walked by. He looked like a monster in his eyes. There was only one person who had ever loved him and since the world changed he didn't remember her or even that he was human to change out of his dragon form much less did he try to leave the mountains without the mountain villagers trying to slay him. He reached onto the dresser and picked up a picture of a young woman with blue-greenish hair and eyes who was standing next to him smiling.

"Nina," he said as he held the picture close to his heart, "I will find you."

In Michelle's room, Michelle and Rocky were having a heated discussion. Rocky did not want Michelle to leave. So every time Michelle would pack something Rocky would take it out and put it back into the dresser.

"We just finally got everything back to normal, got married, and it would kill me to lose you," Rocky yelled, "I won't let you leave."

"We don't have any idea of how much this boy's wish will affect our world," Michelle responded, "you weren't there, you have no idea how much different the world used to be. He could make it so that I would forget you and you me."

"Besides this will be a good way to make a connection with other lands around the world."

"So you're saying the story is true," Rocky asked.

"Yes I told you this already. I was there."

"How am I supposed to keep in contact with you when you're gone?"

Michelle walked over to a trunk, pulled out a pair of what looked like books, and handed one to Rocky. He opened the book and flipped through the pages.

"It's empty."

"They're like journals except what you write will show up in mine and what I write will show up in yours," Michele said.

"You don't how long you'll be gone so how do you know my feelings won't be different when you come back?" Rocky asked. Michelle went over and kissed him.

"Because I'll make sure they won't."

Out on the rooftop over his room Michael laid on the roof looking at the stars and thinking about their journey. It would probably be one of his most dangerous quests yet, but at least he would see her again and he wondered how she is going to react to him. He could see her red hair and he remembered her smell. He shook his head. No, he told himself, he had to concentrate on what they needed to do. The image of the young man with the large sword stood out in his head. He reached over and rubbed his back. His wings had reappeared after the young man with the large sword had left. He thought of his face, his white spiky hair, and that sword. It looked highly advanced and more scientific than magical. They said that he cut the castle in half with it. How could someone be that powerful? He chuckled at his own question. He was once someone that powerful. In fact all the guardians at their full power were. They were bound to meet him. How could they in their current state stand up against someone like that? He thought to him.

"Oh well, I'll handle it when that time comes," he whispered to himself.

"Handle what," Spirits voice rung out as he looked up and saw Spirits face upside down hanging over him.

"Oh I was thinking about tomorrow," he said.

"Of course we can handle it," she said smiling. She lay down beside him looking at the stars. "We're Guardians. We can handle anything."

Michael smiled and looked at her. That was something he used to say. He laughed at the thought and looked into the stars with her.

The following morning they had traveled by horseback to the edge of the kingdom. They stood looking at the large sandy desert in front of them. They could feel the immense heat of the sun already. It was sand for as far as the eye can see.

"We got water," Michael asked wearing his red trench coat and black pants. The only thing different about his outfit was that his white T-shirt was now a black tank top.

"Check," Wes answered. He was wearing a blue tank top with blue and black camouflage colored pants that he had the magic tailors design so that it would transform with him.

"We got food?"

"Check," Spirit answered, "and it's heavy." She was carrying a large backpack and wearing tan shorts with a purple shirt and hat.

"And I got the supplies," Michael told them while carrying a collapsed tent, hiking gear, and Spirit's bow, "Lets move out." They watched Wes turn into his dragon form. Spirit thought it was the strangest thing ever. Wes' legs were the first thing to change they became long and bent backwards. His arms did the same thing and then his body became huge while his face elongated into a long snout. His wings shot out and expanded until he had a thirty-foot wingspan. A loud popping noise came from his mouth as extra teeth came in. Wes let out a loud roar and they all got on.

"Next stop Tech City."

Hundreds of miles away from them in a room in the underground trading center Andalah, a group of nomads waits at a stone table waiting on someone.

"What are we here for Jessup?" said one of the nomads impatiently his mouth and nose covered by an orange mask. The other nomads grunted and jeered in agreement. Jessup a nomad in a blue mask with blue eyes gave them all an irritated look. One look and they all turned silent.

"Someone has a job for us," the door to the room opened and a young woman walked in. Her hair was jet black with yellow streaks going through it and in pigtails, she was wearing a tight yellow shirt and black leather pants. One of the nomads whistled and the others laughed. She looked at the one that whistled. Her eyes were as yellow as her shirt. They looked somewhat cat like. The nomad started coughing and turning blue. Sand was coming out of his mouth as he coughed. He could not breathe. The others were looking at him in alarm.

"OK that is ENOUGH," Jessup said and the lady turned away.

The nomad that was choking started gagging and threw up. It was all sand.

"So you can manipulate sand like us if not better, then why do you need us," Jessup said, "Who are you and what's the job?"

"My name is Uriel and my master needs you to capture these four people," she said while showing them perfect drawings of Michael, Spirit, Michelle, and Wes.

"What do we get as a reward?" Jessup asked. Uriel clapped her hands and ten trunks came through the door carried by waves of sand. They opened and showed countless golden treasures.

"All this and more."

The men laughed greedily through their masks and Jessup said, "You've got yourself some men."

Farther out in the desert closer to Tech City sat a vehicle that looked like a small hovering red jet with a large tinted window. Inside the jet was a tanned, seventeen year old boy with spiky black hair and grayish eyes. He was sitting in the front seat reading a comic book and eating pocky. He was wearing black pants and a black button up shirt. The shirt was unbuttoned so that his white T-shirt showed. A bounty hunter badge and a sheathed katana were lying on the seat beside him.

"Wow, this is big," a female voice came from behind him. A girl with fox-like ears, claw like hands, and a bushy fox-like tail poked her head up front with a big smile. Her hair was auburn red like her tail, her eyes' yellowish-brown, she wore a greenish gray skirt, and a white short-sleeve, stomach showing shirt that had the words Bite Me written on the front.

"There's a bounty out for these four guys," she said while showing him paper with their photos.

"So?" he asked looking at them, "they look really weak to me."

"Tornado, their worth one trillion credits, our great-great grandchildren will be set," she shouted excitedly.

Tornado put down his book started up Shadow, the name of his X-unit ship. It floated two feet above the ground.

"Let's go get paid then Cannis," Tornado said as they zoomed off in search of their bounty.

**Chapter 11**

**Stories and Feelings**

"How long is it gonna take us to get there?" Michelle asked removing the hair from her face. The wind was strong higher up from the ground.

"I'm not sure; I've never flown before except using my own wings which are way smaller than Wes' dragons form. It took me two weeks last time."

"Two weeks that guy left a month ago, he could have already gotten the key to Tech City," Spirit said.

"No, he hasn't," Michael said, "first off we don't know if he left right away, also this guy deals in secrecy so it would take him about at least a month to try and find a way to sneak into the city, and it would also take time to find the key. I also have a connection in Tech City so that person would have told me if something had happened."

"Who's this person at Tech City Michael?" Michelle asked curiously.

"It's just someone I know," Michael, said shifting his gaze upwards and scratching his neck.

"It's her isn't it," Michelle asked smiling.

"What makes you think that it's her," Michael replied still avoiding her gaze.

"How has she been?" Michelle whispered to him.

"She's all right; I last talked to her face to face fifteen years ago, though."

"Does Spirit know about her?" Michelle asked him.

"No, I never told her," Michael replied.

"Good, don't tell her."

"Why not?"

"Hey what are you two whispering about," Spirit asked out loud.

"Nothing," Michelle answered, "just talking about old times."

"Hey I want to hear about you two when you used to hang out together," Spirit said. Michael and Michelle looked at each other and laughed.

"Ok, you tell it," Michelle said looking at Michael.

"All right," Michael said.

"Before the change there was a country called Transylvania, it was a dark and dirty country. It was where most of the evil and dark monsters lived it was like Chaos city but a lot worse. Michelle had put in a letter for my services that told me that she needed some help with two werewolves named Wax and Wane. Now these weren't your ordinary werewolves they had the ability to control and manipulate ice and lightening. It was back in the early eighteen hundreds and Michelle and I weren't really the best of partners. She was the queen of vampires and I was an archangel trying to get people to be on the right path. The only reason we had teamed up was that Wax and Wane were killing off both humans and vampires.

Therefore, we teamed up because we could help each other out. When Michelle first saw me, she thought I wasn't the real guy because back then I carried a big scythe with me and wore all black. She tried to trap me by getting me into a huge fight at a vampire and demon bar. When I finally came outside, she was standing by the door and shocked to see me. She looked inside and saw that there wasn't anyone there and that's when she knew I was the real deal.

We set off to find these two werewolves. The last town witnesses saw them in was Jusylia. When we arrived there, two children had received bites and their parents killed. I went and healed the children's bites so that they wouldn't become werewolves themselves. That night we stayed at the inn. Late in the night, a loud scream pierced our sleep. We rushed outside and ran toward the direction the scream came from. We ran until we came to a house encased in ice. When we walked into the house, there was a man and a woman frozen solid standing with looks of fear embedded on their faces. I snapped my fingers and the ice melted. The woman came running at me and cried, "my baby . . . sobs . . . they took my daughter."

"Don't worry," I said, "we will get her back." Michelle laughed at me and I asked her why. She called me naive for making broken promises like that. I ignored her.

We followed their tracks to a cave outside the town. We walked inside. After walking a few feet into the cave, I walked into a light layer of water covering the floor. A jolt of electricity knocked me backwards off my feet. There was an electric current traveling throughout the water. Michelle laughed at me, focused the gravity on her feet, and walked on the ceiling. I shook the shock off opened my wings and glided my way over the water. When we reached the interior of the cave, we looked around and found the two they had bitten the girl and were keeping her to raise her as their own. Michelle increased the gravity in the room so they could not move. I showed myself and blasted them. Wane let out a howl and froze Michelle in a block of ice using the water underneath her and Wax clawed at me and missed but the electricity from off his claws still cut through me.

I used my fire rockets to free Michelle and she increased the gravity tenfold and slammed them to the ground. We rescued the girl, I cured her, and the villagers hung Wax and Wane when they turned back to humans. And that's the first time I and Michelle met."

"Well that was interesting," Spirit said, "werewolves with the power to control lightening and create ice. I'm glad we didn't have those in Chaos city."

"Yeah the war would have been a lot harder," Michael said. The sun was setting in the sky and the air was getting cooler.

"I have another story I want to know about," Michelle said. "You haven't told us what happened when you went into the canyon." Michael thought about it and started shaking. He shook harder and faster.

"Was it that terrifying," Spirit asked curiously.

"S-So many snakes and insects," Michael whispered and started rocking back and forth. "When I jumped down into there it was like jumping into darkness itself. There were no lights except for the flames in my hand. It was almost too cold to create a flame. On the ground crawled millions of bugs and hundreds of snakes. There were all these flying fish in the air down at the bottom. They had these huge eyes and sharp teeth. I had to outrun those things and blast them because they confused me with food. I finally found the piece of the orb of flames when I saw it glowing on the ground. When I got near it, the orb rose up and went into my right arm. I created a line of flames across the wall and that lit up the floor so that I could find the barrels. I picked them up using fire rockets and flew out of there. If it wasn't for the fire barrier and the will to help Wes, I would have gone insane. Once I got out, I saw the flare in the air and rushed to the dome then to the castle. I plan to get a hundred cans of pest killer from Tech City, drop them down into that canyon, and blow them up killing all those little bugs and snakes." He said the last sentence with an evil grin while rubbing his hands together.

Spirit let out a loud sneeze that made everybody jump. Michael looked at her and she was shivering. Night had fallen and the air was getting cool.

"Hey Wes," Michael called out, "I guess we better find somewhere to land soon." They sailed under the crescent moon looking for somewhere to sleep for the night.

"Aww, man this feels so good," Michelle shouted as the water spilled off of the rocks onto her body and into the stream below the following morning.

"Yeah, your right," Spirit replied standing beside her then shouted, "NO PEEKING!"

"Who'd want to look at you," Michael replied off the top of his head. A rock flew out from behind the bushes and hit Michael in the back of the head.

"Oww, what was that for!" he turned around and shot at her. Another rock came and smacked him dead in his forehead.

"NO PEEKING!"

They had found an oasis to rest at in the desert and let Wes take a break. It had been three days since they left. There had been no trouble so far, they had refilled their water from the spring, and so far, their food rations looked like it would be enough to last the entire trip.

"He's such a pain"; Spirit said angrily while washing her hair, "why can't him just be considerate for once."

"I don't think he meant what he said the way it sounded, I think his mind was just in other places," Michelle said drying off.

"Yeah he was probably thinking about that girl," Spirit said ranting, "Who is she anyway?"

"Just a girl Michael used to be with," Michelle answered, "I can't say much about her, Michael said he'd introduce you to her."

Michelle and Spirit joined Michael who was sitting eating an apple about ten feet away from the stream behind some bushes. Wes walked up out of some bushes to join them a few minutes later while everyone had started eating. He had been looking around the oasis, which was about two miles in diameter.

"It looks like we're alone, a couple of reptiles but that's it, no other animals," he said then he saw the lump on Michael's forehead, "what happened to you?"

"Someone lost their marbles and decided to throw a rock at me for no reason," Michael said glaring at Spirit.

"Well if someone would watch what they say it wouldn't happen," Spirit snarled back.

"Well I didn't mean it the way it sounded I was just thinking about something else."

"Well maybe you should focus more when someone's talking to you, Lover boy," Spirit shouted then got up and stormed off.

"What's her problem?" Michael asked with a confused look on his face.

Wes shrugged. Michelle looked at both of them then shook her head.

"Men," she said unbelievingly.

"What," they both said looking at her.

"You're still as dense as ever, Michael, she likes you."

"Who Spirit . . . Me . . . No . . ." Michael said shocked, "I mean she said she loved me before but I turned her down because I thought she was just saying it out of the heat of the moment."

"Hey wait a second," Wes started, "now that I think about it . . . didn't this happen before?"

"What do you mean," Michelle asked.

"Michael takes an apprentice that's a guardian, she falls in love with him, and he denies it and pays no notice . . ."

"Oh you mean Aires," Michelle said.

Michael glared at the two of them.

"Don't get all mad looking at me Spirit isn't around so I can talk about her. You need to talk to Spirit before she becomes like Aires," Michelle told Michael in a matter of fact way. Michael stared at the ground, thinking. It had been a long time since he heard that name, Aires, his biggest regret.

"You don't have to tell her how you feel," Wes, said understanding, "just show her that you care and that she's a friend as well as a student."

"Thanks, for the advice but it is not love that's bothering me," Michael told them.

"What is it then," Wes asked Michael smirking. Michelle raised her eyebrow.

"Okay that's one thing on my mind," Michael said quickly, "but the main thing that's bothering me is being in this desert again. I lost two important people in here and I remember it every time I cross it." The smirk on Wes' face disappeared

"Sorry man," Wes told Michael quickly.

"No need to be, I mean you were half right. Meeting up with Kim is bothering me too," Michael said smiling at them. "I'll go talk to Spirit and straighten things out," he said as he stood up and then walked into through the brush that Spirit walked through.

"Heh, he's six billion years old and he still doesn't have a grip on love," Wes told Michelle while smiling once again.

"Yeah but it's understandable when you think about the Guardian's age curse," she said then asked Wes curiously, "I wonder who he lost out here."

When Michael found Spirit, she was sitting on a rock ledge that jutted out from the oasis over the desert. Her feet dangling off the edge a small tornado spun over the desert in front of her. Michael stood back and looked at her. It is not as if Spirit was not pretty and talented. It is just that he did not want to let go of his first love.

"Hey," Michael said out loud to her. Spirit turned and looked at him then turned back around not saying anything.

"I'm sorry about earlier, it was mean and inconsiderate." Spirit still said nothing.

"It's not that I don't care about you it's just that there's something else along with someone else that I haven't seen in a while that's on my mind." He looked into her eyes. "Not to say that you're not. It's just I've known that person for a while. Not that it matters. You're my friend too, and I should remind myself that I'm lucky to have a friend like you."

"Do you love her," Spirit asked not looking at him.

"I did, I'm not sure if there's any spark between us anymore. That's what I want to find out." Spirit stood up, walked toward him, and gave him a hug.

"It is O.K.," she said, "I forgive you." She grabbed his arm and they both walked back to their camp. Spirit thought to herself "I'll just wait until he knows his answer." Under the ledge in the sand below the wind started to blow filling the large etched words, I LOVE YOU, in with sand.

"This trip has been pretty boring," Michelle said a few days later while letting out a big yawn, "I expected more excitement and it's so hot." She was wearing a black Gothic dress with a black parasol shading her from the sun as they rode on Wes' back. Michael wings were out over his head shading him from the sun, while Spirit had a mini tornado spinning around her to keep her cool.

"What do you expect when you're wearing a layered black dress in the desert," Spirit said sarcastically.

"I'll let that one go on the fact that it's too hot to move," Michelle said exhausted, "can't you turn the heat down some, Michael."

"I've already brought the temperature down to a hundred degrees. I can create heat and raise the temperature by thousands of Kelvin but I can only lower it by so much."

Spirit looked down at the ground below. She had been doing this every few minutes or so for the last half hour.

"Hey, Michael you know those bumps moving underneath the sand that you said was sand worms has been following us for the past half hour." Michael looked down and replied, "Well it's not like we've been switching directions so maybe there just going in the same direction as us, but if you feel bothered by them, Wes turn to the right then turn back straight." Wes turned to the right and the bumps kept going straight then disappeared.

"I guess they went back deep," Michael said calmly.

"Maybe there like dolphins," Michelle said to him, "they show themselves when their traveling beside something." They flew another two miles when Spirit looked down and yelled, "they're back and they brought friends."

They all looked down there were six bumps moving underneath the sand.

"Wes," Michael called out concerned, "we need to move faster." Wes roared and picked up speed. The bumps moved faster too.

"We need to find out what these things are," Michael and Michelle stood up. Michael's hands caught blaze and Michelle's magical symbols circled around hers.

"FIRE ROCKETS," Michael called out. Twelve rocket shaped fireballs appeared in the air and shot down at the ground at the bumps. They hit the ground and created craters in the sand. The bumps went down for a few minutes and then rose back up. Michelle smiled.

"My turn." A purplish clear orb covered around the bumps. Michelle held out both of her hands and closed her hands into fists.

A wave went across the sand as it tightened together from the weight. The bumps did not move Wes had stopped in midair still flapping his wings. Everyone was looking down to see if the bumps would move. After a few minutes, Michael wiped the sweat off his forehead and Spirit said, "I guess that stopped them."

"All right then Wes, I guess we can go," Michael called out. Wes went to fly forward and an explosion came from underneath them sending sand everywhere. As they were wiping the sand out of their eyes, a wall of sand rose up from the ground quickly. Within seconds, it formed a circle around them. It then tightened to create a tube of hardened sand around them. They could see men sliding sideways around the tube. Each of the men had on a different color mask. The men stopped sliding and stood sideways on the tube wall. They had their feet buried into the sand to stop them from falling.

"It's a trap. He knew we were coming," Michelle yelled.

"Spikes," Jessup yelled to his other men while he was at the bottom of the sand wall.

The men slammed their hands onto the wall and then spikes made from sand started to shoot out of the wall from the bottom of the tube in a spiral.

"Everyone hold on to something," Michael yelled out. Wes turned straight up and flew vertical through the tube around him. The spikes were speeding up behind him.

"Spirit," Michelle yelled, "see if you can do something to slow them down." Spirit's hands turned bright blue; she let one hand go off Wes and pointed it down. A large tornado formed below them, but it did not stop the spikes.

"They're too solid I can't stop them." It started to become dark in the cylinder of sand.

"The top of the tube is closing," Michelle yelled. The top of the cylinder of hard sand was closing. Wes roared and let out a giant fireball and blew a hole through the top.

"We're almost through," Spirit yelled. However, the fireball had slowed Wes down. The spikes had caught up with them and one punctured Wes' left wing. "RROOOAAAARRR," Wes let out in pain and he started to fall back.

The spikes below broke as Wes fell through them and the sand at the bottom started to rush up and fill the tube. Michael flew off and tried to grab Spirit who was closest to him, but Wes lost consciousness and started to fall. He turned his back facing the ground and Spirit and Michelle became trapped under him. Loose sand started to flow upwards quickly. It had reached them and covered over Wes and the others swallowing them like quicksand. Michael flew up.

"Flame Explosion," he yelled and his body was engulfed in flames. Then as if he was a bomb, an explosion erupted from him. The sand walls crumbled and came falling down on top of Michael.

The only thing viewable from the sky on the desert surface was sand. Everyone had disappeared and there were no traces of anything. Suddenly the sand turned red and exploded sending sand flying into the air. Michael crawled out of the crater that he had formed covered in and coughing out sand. He looked around and saw no one around.

"WES . . . SPIRIT . . . MICHELLE"

"DAMMIT," Michael yelled. His hair and his hands caught fire and he punched the sand beneath him. A wave of sand flowed away from him. A half a mile long and deep crater formed in the ground around him. The top layer of the crater was no longer sand but glass. Michael stood in the middle and dropped to his knees. His wings caught fire and an explosion of fire erupted from him again like a nuclear explosion as he let out a loud yell of anger.

Fifteen miles away and forty miles underground a troop of sand nomads were traveling underground. Sand worms that were both ten feet high and wide in the middle of the troop were carrying the separate glass like cages with Spirit, Wes, and Michelle unconscious. Jessup was leading them with Uriel beside him.

"We only caught three out of four of them so shouldn't we go back for the other one?" The tunnel they were in shook, the other sand nomads grabbed onto the walls to keep balance, and sand came down from the ceiling.

"We do not have to he will be coming to us," Uriel said with a devilish smile.

**Chapter 12**

**Flames of Fury**

"Ugh, my head," Spirit said as she rubbed her head and finding a knot in the back of it. "Where am I?" She lifted herself up off a hard glass like floor and looked around. She was in a room made entirely out of glass. It was a cage. She felt her back and realized her bow was gone. She concentrated and her hands glowed bright blue with wind energy circling around them. She ran forward and punched the glass like wall focusing all of the energy to the point of impact.

"Ow," she cried waving her hand back and forth from the pain. There was not even a scratch on the wall.

"Oi," Wes' somewhat muffled voice yelled out, "You're awake." Spirit turned and looked to the side. Wes was back in human form and was in a cage similar to hers except his had holes poked in it for air. Michelle was in a cage beside Wes' cage but she could not see her that clearly. Spirit looked at her cage and wondered why there were no holes. Then she saw it in the corner was a small vent connected to a machine pouring air in. She tried to air teleport and found herself blown back into the cage through the vent.

Spirit's hand ached and when she looked at it, it was still red. "Yeah I have already tried it's made of diamond," Wes said disappointedly. "Michelle tried also and couldn't do it."

"Of course she couldn't," a female voice rang out. A loud clanking sound was coming from around the corner of the walkway leading into the room the cages were in and a young woman in high heels and black hair with yellow highlights walked into the room. She was wearing a Victorian style yellow dress with black lace.

"These cages were designed to hold you and your incredible powers," she said.

"URIEL," Wes snarled at her. "I should have known!"

"You know her," Spirit said surprised.

"Yeah Michael and I have dealt with her in the past. She is a sand controller to the point that her abilities are Guardian like. She's a power and wealth hungry person that only looks out for her own self."

Wes turned from Spirit to Uriel and yelled, "What are you up to and why attack us if we didn't even know you were here."

"I'm working for someone and they want you out of the way," she said slyly.

"It has to be that white haired guy, the one who took the key from the magical world. WHO IS HE AND WHAT DOES HE PLAN ON WISHING FOR," Wes yelled angrily.

"That's none of your business."

"What's in it for you," Wes asked angrily.

"Anything I want," she said. Wes was looking at her angrily and she looked back with a smirk. A large desert spider was crawling on her dress skirt. When she looked down and noticed it, she screamed. A hand made of sand came up from the sand covered floor that she was standing on and grabbed the spider off her dress. She looked at the spider in disgust and the hand crushed it.

"Ugh, I hate bugs," she said to herself. She looked at Wes' face, which had a smirk on it, stuck her nose high, and stormed off; the sound of her heals faded off into the distance.

After a few minutes of silence, Wes looked around and said, "We're probably not going to get any more information from her. It's time to get out of here."

"How," Spirit asked, "You just said you couldn't break it."

"That's because she was there. It'll take some time," Wes said with a smile while his dragon like arm turned into a shiny, metallic like spike, "Uriel doesn't know about this ability. It a rare indestructible metal found from meteorites and it can break diamond. We have to get out of here quickly anyway."

"Why, besides obvious reasons," Spirit asked.

"It's been awhile since Michelle has eaten," Wes told her, "she doesn't look to good." Michelle was looking pale and weak. There was a somewhat savage look in her eye.

Twenty miles up and one hundred and fifty miles away Michael was flying looking down on the surface trying to detect some kind of life below. Michael was traveling so fast that the bottom parts of his wings were on fire and looked like he was wearing a jet pack. The group decided at the beginning of the trip that the mission came first. That if captured help would not come until after someone reached Tech City. Even though Michael made that rule, he could not go through with it. He decided that he would go to Tech city and bring back some help.

"Kim will know what to do and how to find them," he thought as he raced toward Tech City. "If I keep up at this speed I should reach it in a day. Hold on guys, I'll come save you."

One hundred miles northwest of Michael, a cloaked X-unit ship sat in the desert. Tornado was still sitting in the front seat. This time he was reading a book called, "The Hunter's" when the digital display on his front panel started emitting a loud beeping noise every few seconds. He looked at the temperature screen. The normal temperature for the desert was one hundred and fifty degrees Fahrenheit. The display was reading one sixty.

"Wow it is a hot day out there today huh, Cannis," he asked. Cannis poked her head out through the middle of the front seats and looked at the display.

"Yeah and it is getting hotter," she said. Tornado looked at the display again. Beep, one sixty-five . . . Beep, one seventy . . . Beep, one ninety. The display started beeping faster until finally stopping.

"Two hundred and eighty-five degrees that's impossible!" Cannis shouted. They looked on the heat detecting radar and saw a bright yellow and red object moving fast a few miles away from them.

"What the heck is that," Tornado asked unbelieving.

"Use the area cameras to zoom in and see," Cannis said while handing him a laptop. He opened it up and the monitor split into four different windows each showing a different area camera image from the mobile monitoring cameras flying around the area. He saw something moving on one of the windows. It was an object moving so fast that dust was coming up behind it. At the top of the window was a button to zoom in. Tornado clicked it until he could see what was moving so fast. In his ear, he felt a breeze, he turned to look over his shoulder, and his face smacked into Cannis' nose. She was right over his shoulder looking at the screen. He turned to look at her and saw Cannis holding her nose.

"Oww that hurt," she cried out.

"It's your own fault," Tornado told her, "you could warn someone you're over their shoulder."

"But Tornado look at da screen," she said still holding her nose. Tornado turned and looked at the screen and saw Michael on the camera. Tornado buckled his seatbelt and handed her the computer.

"Put up the barriers, it's time to collect our bounty," Tornado told her while starting up the ship and heading toward Michael.

Michael flew so fast that he did not notice the camera that he passed. The only thing on his mind was getting help for the others.

"I will come back for you, please be okay," he kept repeating to himself.

"Smack."

Michael had stopped in midair and looked as though he hit an invisible wall.

"Owww," he said as he fell to the ground, sand flew up when he landed on it. He stood up and looked in front of him. He could see the desert in front of him, but when he put his hands out he could feel a wall stopping him from moving forward. Michael's wings glowed bright white and then went back inside his back. He shook his head that was still a little dizzy.

"Now I know what a bug hitting a windshield feels like." He ran for about a half mile east and still felt the wall; he did the same west, north, and south. Walls surrounded him.

"I don't have time for this," he thought. He punched the wall and fell back to the ground. The wall sparked and Michael shook the electricity off his hand.

"Damn, it has an electrical current going through it now," he said shaking his right hand.

"Fire Rocket Syndrome."

Multiple fire rockets kept appearing and fired at all points of the barrier but it still would not give.

"Grrr, it still won't give, huh," he said angrily, "FIRESTORM!" A giant pillar of fire poured from the sky onto the top of the barrier. Tornado and Cannis were half a mile away from the barrier when they saw what looked like streaks of red lights firing inside the walls and a giant pillar of fire pouring down on it.

"Tornado, the barriers about to break," Cannis shouted to him from the back seat, while she looked at the barrier's status on the laptop.

"That's impossible! I want you to look up the bounty again and get any information you can on this guy," he said looking at the barrier in amazement.

"His name is supposed to be Michael, his age and origins are unknown. He's wanted for multiple deaths and then it says he is a fire using being with healing abilities."

"No wonder this guy is worth so much," Tornado told her looking at the barrier, "All right we're going to need the heavy artillery and the block healing seal." Cannis typed something on the touch screen display in the back of Tornado's seat and the seat beside her in the back folded down revealing a door that opened and a large metal case rolled out.

Cannis opened it and replied, "Okay we're ready."

Michael looked at the walls and concentrated. Fire rockets kept appearing and firing at the walls and the pillar poured down even harder. The barrier walls started to crack and started to look like a broken window. Then a loud explosion, the barrier had broken.

"Yes," Michael thought he wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his arm. He went to reopen his wings and fly away but before he could bring them out a metal rocket collided with his side pulling him off his feet and into the air. He grabbed the rocket and tried to pull himself off it, but before he could, it exploded. Instead of fire, it released a liquid that surrounded him and froze instantly encasing him in a block of ice that fell to the ground.

The X-unit ship pulled up feet away from the frozen block that was Michael. Tornado and Cannis jumped out of the ship both wearing white machinery that covered from their chest to their necks and then from their waist down to their ankles. It was a coolant suit designed for the desert. They both walked up to the block and smiled.

"That was easy," Tornado, said smiling.

"The flash freeze rocket is the strongest ice style weapon for a reason," Cannis replied. "It's a bit costly but for this guy it's worth it."

"Let's load him up and . . ." Tornado stopped talking and looked at the block of ice. It had started sizzling and the inside was glowing red.

"There's no way," Tornado said shocked. Cannis gasped as her eyes reflected the light growing brighter.

"GET DOWN," Tornado yelled and grabbed Cannis' waist pulling her down with him. The block of ice exploded sending chunks of ice whizzing by their head. Michael who was on one of his knees catching his breath stood up and looked at them.

"Who the heck are you people," he asked angrily.

Tornado stood up and drew his sword from its scabbard. It was four feet long and its width was an inch and a half. It was black except for the edges that glowed with a dim blue light.

"We're here to collect you, you have a bounty on your head," Tornado responded, "You're wanted for multiple deaths so I don't care how strong you are I'm going to stop you." He lunged at Michael with his sword and then went into a fury of sword attacks. Michael could only dodge and try to avoid his attacks, yet each time he dodged, he would still get a small cut close to the area the sword missed. It did not bother him too much since he would heal a few seconds after.

He heard a loud bang behind him and Tornado jumped back. Cannis launched a liquid like net that closed over him; the force sent him tumbling into the sand. Michael started to try to pull the net off but could not grab anything. Instead of staying on top of him, it absorbed into his skin. He felt a hot sensation all on his body and a burning feeling on his wrists. He looked down and there was a tattoo of what looked like magic symbols going around both of his wrists. Tornado started to attack again. Michael jumped back high into the air.

"Fire Rockets," he yelled and launched three rockets at Tornado, who cut through them with ease.

"Chi Wave," Tornado said and slashed through the air four times. Four waves of bluish-white light cut through the air and slashed Michael across his chest tearing through his shirt and leaving four gashes in his chest.

"Oww," Michael yelled out, "that hurt . . . wait that hurt." He landed away from Tornado and looked down at his chest waiting for the cuts to heal, but they did not.

"I'm not healing," he said looking at them confused.

"That net contained a sealing spell capable of sealing away healing powers," Cannis said with a smirk.

"Well when in doubt about your odds," Michael said smiling at them, "Run."

Michael turned and ran ten steps; he released his wings, and flew off. Tornado and Cannis looked at him in shock.

"Back in the ship," Tornado yelled at Cannis and they both jumped back into the ship and chased after him hovering ten feet above the ground. Michael was thirty feet in front of them and traveling one hundred and ninety-five miles per hour.

"Heh, he thinks he can escape us, huh," Cannis asked. She was sitting in the passenger seat while Tornado was flying. She was looking at the screen in front of her that had a target lock on guidance system that was following Michael.

"Got a lock on him," Cannis told Tornado.

"Fire," Tornado commanded.

A missile shot out from the ship with a cable connected to it and followed Michael. The missile got behind him and split into four missiles holding a net. The net wrapped around Michael and he fell to the ground. Michael tumbled when he hit the ground but could not break free of the net.

"We got him now let's take him in," Tornado said smiling. Tornado went to take the ship back up into the air. The ship made a loud groaning sound as though it was trying to lift something heavy. Tornado put the ship to full throttle but the ship would not move.

"Tornado, you won't believe this," Cannis said in awe while looking out the window. Michael had punched hand sized holes through the netting reached into the sand and heated the sand so that the sand turned to glass around his hands the glass was fifty feet wide and went down a few feet deep.

"I will not let you take me," Michael said straining, "I must save my friends."

Tornado put the jet down and jumped out of the ship.

"I'll give you props," Tornado told Michael you are strong. Michael created two flaming orbs in his hands and blew up the glass. He grabbed to long pieces and sliced through the netting. Rubbing his wrists, he looked at them waiting to see their next move.

"I think I might have grown an inch or two from all that stretching."

"You just had to choose the hard way," Cannis said to him while pulling out a staff from the ship with two large flat blades at the end. Tornado and Cannis took fighting stances.

"Looks like I'll have to get serious too," Michael said while reaching into the inside of his coat and pulled out a bag. He reached inside and pulled out a bunch of small metal poles. The poles rose by themselves and connected into a staff and at the very top, a flame in the shape of a blade shot out. It was a flaming scythe.

"I would try to tell you that you're mistaken, but I don't think you'll believe me," Michael said while buttoning up his trench coat, "I'm glad I get to fight someone as skilled as you two. I don't get to use my scythe as often as I used to"

Michael stared into Tornado's eyes and Tornado stared back each waiting for the other to make a move. Tornado felt a drop of sweat fall down the back of his neck and it made him worry about the situation. The coolant packs they were wearing over their clothes would only last for about thirty minutes in normal desert temperature, but this time the temperature that Michael was emitting was far worse than normal and they had already used up ten minutes.

"I have to end this quickly," he thought to himself. On the opposite side, Michael was thinking something similar.

"They have to be feeling the heat I'm giving off; I don't want to kill them. I have to stop this before it gets out of hand, but how?"

Tornado charged at him and Cannis followed, both of their weapons at the ready.

"Fire Rockets," Michael yelled and four rockets came out circled him as though to protect him. Tornado swung his sword down and Michael blocked it with his scythe. The loud clash of metals striking each other rang through the air. Cannis went to strike Michael from behind with her blade staff while he was busy with defending Tornado's attacks. When her blade got close to reaching him a fire rocket blocked the attack, exploded, and sent her stumbling back a few feet. Tornado launched into a fury of stab attacks that Michael could barely see much less block. Michael never felt Tornado's sword touch him yet cuts were appearing all over his body and some were bleeding freely.

"Fire flare," Michael yelled as he swung his scythe at Tornado. The blade of the fire scythe got longer and cut a line into the machinery he was wearing.

Meanwhile behind him Cannis had picked up her blade staff in both hands, planted her feet, and started swinging it in circles. She swung it at Michael's back and hit a fire rocket, but only slid back a few inches.

Michael started to feel light headed from the loss of blood.

"If I don't end it soon I might actually die," he thought, "Okay, I got two fire rockets left circling me and I'm guessing this guy uses his spiritual energy to extend the range of his swords. I am already exhausted from using fire rocket syndrome and firestorm. Melting that sand was taxing as well. I cannot use to many more fire attacks. I guess I can use firestorm one more time but I'll need time and space. I'll also have to use it from the right enough distance so that it doesn't hurt them just knocks them out. Crap, I'm down to one rocket. Okay, I got it."

Michael blocked Tornado's next attack and pushed forward, making Tornado stumble back, while Cannis destroyed his last fire rocket. Both went to attack, Michael swung his scythe and hit the ground with the top launching himself up into a handstand at the top of the pole. Both of their attacks missed and Tornado and Cannis were about to hit each other with their weapons. Michael yelled out, "Fire wave," and a wave of fire emitted from the scythe on the ground turning the sand under their feet into glass and making them slip and fall. Michael pushed his body upwards as he let go of the scythe and landed a few feet away. He put out his right hand and the scythe came out of the ground and into his hand . . .

Cannis took her staff and slammed it into the glass, breaking it into shattered pieces so that they could stand. Both of them rose onto their feet. Michael blocked Tornado's vertical slash. However, Cannis' slashed upwards and sent Michael's scythe flying into the air.

"You should give up or else," Tornado commanded as he held his sword up to Michael's throat.

"What makes you think that," Michael asked pulling a white orb out of his pocket and putting it close to his wounds which started to heal. The two bounty hunters started to laugh.

"You do realize you just lost your weapon," Cannis told him through her laughs. Michael stood their calmly and said, "Yeah it's a marker for my next attack." Both of them stopped laughing and looked confused.

A large pillar of fire came from the sky and struck the scythe. It sent an intense wave of heat and wind that knocked Tornado and Cannis off their feet and unconscious. The sand around them started to slide toward the pillar of fire.

"What the heck," Michael let out. The pillar had pierced a cavern or something and the sand was pouring into the hole. The pillar stopped and Michael saw Tornado and Cannis' bodies floating in the sand toward the hole. Michael tried to walk through the sand but could barely move it was pulling him toward it. He tried to summon his wings from his back and could not do that either. The firestorm attack had taken so much out of him and the sand was heavy.

"I don't know what's down there so I can't leave them or else they might die."

He forced his legs to move but he could not.

"Fire Rockets," he yelled out and four rockets appeared. He slammed one into himself and it blew him up into the air. He then fired another one at himself and aimed himself to where Cannis was. He grabbed her tight under her arm and hit himself with another fire rocket that launched him back into the air. He used the last one to propel himself at Tornado. He grabbed his waist and tried to walk out of the whirlpool of sand but his body went faint and the sand dragged him into the hole.

He felt his body free fall and he held onto them tighter. Michael turned around so that his body would be a cushion for their fall. After a few seconds, Michael's body collided with a hard metal like floor. Michael looked around his vision blurred he saw dusty machinery. He looked back up at the sand pouring in. A large red object was coming toward the hole. It fell through and Michael could make out the X-unit ship. He grabbed the others and slid across the floor holding them. The ship landed and exploded sending pieces flying through the air. Tiny shrapnel hit Michael's body leaving small cuts on his hands and face. Michael saw Tornado open his eyes slightly. He had a confused look on his face as he starred at Michael.

"Why did you save us?" Michael looked back at him, his vision darkening since he was close to passing out.

"Because I'm not a bad guy." Michael saw Tornado let out a small laugh then past out. Then everything he saw went black.

**Chapter 13**

**Sand Witch**

Underground where Spirit and the others were imprisoned a loud alarm was ringing throughout the hallways. Uriel ran into the empty surveillance room where cameras were watching their prisoners. She was wearing ripped blue jeans and an orange designer T-shirt. The cages were empty. Two of the masked nomads were on the floor mask less with bite marks on their necks. She let out an angry yell and turned around to storm out of the room. One of the sand nomads was rushing into the room startled.

"You were the one that was supposed to be watching them, RIGHT?" she screamed at him.

"I-I w-was just using the bathroom," he stuttered out. A large spike of sand shot up from the ground behind him piercing right through his chest. She ran past him and ran into a group of the other nomads her face red with rage and anger.

"Find them or we are all dead," she yelled at them.

"There has to be a way out of here," Wes yelled to the others behind him, while running down a hallway. The others looked around while running. Michelle looking refreshed looked up at the ceiling and saw an air-conditioning duct above them.

"We should follow the A.C. duct, it has to lead to somewhere," she yelled out.

"Stop right there," a voice yelled out behind them. Two sand nomads had caught up with them and were running behind them.

"Spirit," Wes yelled and threw her the bow from the bag that contained their things. Spirit caught it and shot arrows at the two. One of them let out a yell and fell. He grabbed a radio from his side and yelled into it, "THEIR IN THE WEST HALLWAY HEADING TOWARD THE AIR-CONDITIONING ROOM." From a side hallway they had just passed more nomads ran out and was hot on their trail.

"Wes can you do anything?" Michelle yelled out, "because I can't, if I try I might bring the whole place down on us."

"I don't know, there are not many rocks, but I'll try," Wes said concentrating. He stopped and let the others run ahead of him. He took his hands and pushed them toward each other as if he was trying to crush an invisible box. The walls of the hallways started to shake and a large rock cut through the wall and blocked off the entire hallway.

Wes turned and ran to catch up with the girls.

"I've slowed them down but not for long," he said.

"There's a door at the end of the hallway," Spirit yelled to them. They opened the door and walked into the room. A gust of wind picked Spirit up off the ground and Wes grabbed her arm. Michelle's boots were glowing with her gravity magic. The room was circular with a ceiling so high that beyond the dim light from the small lamps on the wall was darkness. All they could see above them were three large fans in the dim light but could hear more above them spinning at high speeds. A large cooling machine connected to the fans was on the floor in the center of the room.

"It must be some kind of air-conditioning machine," Wes yelled over the loud noise from the machine.

"What's that," Spirit yelled back to him.

"Something to cool the air in buildings," he answered, "Wow you've never . . ."

"LOOK THERE'S A DOOR OVER THERE," Michelle yelled interrupting him looking around the ac unit.

They went to run around the machine but stopped when the sand on the ground started to flow together and form the shape of a person. Uriel was standing in front of them sneering.

"Where do you think you're going? Since holding you here is such a problem, I'll just finish you off."

The tiles under her feet shot up and the sand from underneath them flowed onto her body and to her arms. There were claws of compressed sand on her hands and feet. A long tail formed from the bottom of her back long spikes of sand at the end of it. Six spikes of sand were floating around her body and spinning.

"I will tear you limb from limb," she screamed as she pounced at them.

Spirit created a barrier of wind around them to block her attack. She disappeared in midair in a burst of sand.

"Where did she go," Michelle yelled out. They all looked around standing in a triangle back to back. Wes felt a vibration from underneath him.

"She's coming from below," he yelled.

A giant clawed hand made of sand burst through the floor as they all jumped up. The sand claw knocked Michelle into the wall hard and six sand spikes flew into the air and caught her clothes nailing her to it. Her head slumped over and her eyes closed. The impact of her head hitting the wall made her lose conscious. Spirit dodged the claw but had jumped too high and went straight toward the fan.

"SPIRIT, ABOVE YOU," Wes yelled out to her. He turned his dragon arm into stone and stretched it across the room to grab her but was too late. A shocked look spread across Spirits face as her body hit the fan and disappeared. Sand poured up from out of the hole in the floor and formed a laughing Uriel.

"One down two to go," she said snickering her tail waving happily. Her spiked tail shot across the room toward the unconscious Michelle while her large sand arm shot out at Wes in the form of a spear and tried to pierce through his chest but it would not go through him.

"Oh that's right your skin is tough but that doesn't mean I can't crush you," she said pinning him against the wall and adding more sand to it until the only thing visible was from his nose up.

"Let us see how invulnerable your eyes are," Uriel smirked as two spike like points appeared from the sand arm that was smashing Wes and were pointed toward his eyes.

"This should finish you," Uriel said as spikes moved from the middle of the sand arm and headed toward Wes. She felt her tail hit something hard and turned around to see what it is. The spikes stopped an inch away from Wes's eyes. A wind barrier had stopped her tail from reaching Michelle and Uriel had a hole in her that stretched from her chest to her waist.

"You're not the only one who can disappear and reform," a voice came from behind her. Spirit had turned her body into air before she hit the fan. She then solidified right behind Uriel and shot a wind arrow directly at Uriel's back. Spirit fired wind arrows breaking the sand arm piercing through Wes and stopping the spiked tail that was heading toward Michelle. The sand that was holding Wes to the wall became soft and fell to the ground along with Wes who was coughing blood from being compressed.

"Wes, will you be all right?" Spirit asked him worried.

"Yeah just get that chick for me," he said.

Sand crawled up Uriel's legs from the ground and the hole in her chest closed itself filling with sand.

"You ruined my expensive designer shirt," Uriel said looking at the hole in her shirt, "I'll just take its cost out of you." Spirit took her fighting stance and curled her index finger telling Uriel to come on. Uriel pounced at her and Spirit jumped up disappeared before she hit the fan then reappeared on top of the motor spinning the fan. Uriel jumped back into the hole in the ground below her.

"What is she up to," Spirit said to herself looking around wondering where she would strike.

A series of loud bangs rung out all around Spirit as the ceramic wall tiles flew off the wall sending dust and debris into the air and large chunks of tiles bouncing off the fan below and above her. Sand spikes shot out from the now uncovered walls. Spirit jumped up but not quick enough to dodge them all. A spike grazed her left calf muscle and left a nasty cut that sent a sharp pain up her leg. She landed and immediately dropped to her knees. Her leg muscle tightened and she could not stand up straight. I have to stop her somehow, she thought, what would Michael do?

"Use your wind abilities," she heard someone yell.

"Michael," Spirit called out.

"No, but that's something Michael would say," Wes yelled.

Spirit created a tornado between the fans. It grew larger and larger spreading through the other fans. Spirit saw a figure made of sand that look liked Uriel trying to grab onto the wall and then sucked out into the open. Uriel let out a scream and then dispersed into sand inside the tornado. A face formed in the tornados' dust and started making a warped laughing sound.

"You think you could get rid of me like that," it said.

"Actually I do, you're in my element now," Spirit said smiling.

Spirit pulled her bow out and pulled back on the string the arrow grew larger and larger. A giant arrow the size of Spirit herself soon formed and she shot it. It created an extremely strong gust of wind. The wind it created carried the tornado up through the fans above it until the tornado had dispersed and there was no sign of Uriel. Spirit disappeared again and reappeared on the ground. She stumbled over to Wes and helped him to his feet. She used a healing spell on her leg and on Wes' broken ribs.

A cloud of sand appeared falling through the fans. Uriel's body reformed between the first and second fans. Her clothes looked torn up and she had cuts and bruises.

"YOU WEAK LITTLE TRASH YOU THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT ME," Uriel screamed at Spirit.

"Wes, remember when you froze Michelle before, do it again on my signal," Spirit whispered. She air teleported to where Uriel was and formed a tornado around the two of them.

"YOUR TORNADO WON'T STOP ME!"

"It's not meant to. NOW," Spirit yelled as she jumped into the tornado and shot upwards between the fourth and fifth fan. Wes had quickly transformed into his dragon form and let out a yellow flame that turned the fan and Uriel into stone. The stone Uriel fell to the ground and broke in half.

Spirit came floating down as Wes turned back into his human form.

"How did she get cuts and bruises," Spirit asked Wes curiously, "I thought she was made of sand."

"The main sand that she uses to make up her body probably got cracked and broken when going through the fans," Wes told her. "She'll be able to get out of being turned to stone but it'll take her awhile."

They both then slowly walked over to Michelle.

"Wake Up girl," Wes yelled.

"Michelle come on and wake up," Spirit said shaking her.

Michelle started to wake.

"What happened," she said rubbing the back of her head.

"We'll talk about it later, but for now come on," Wes said slinging her arm over his shoulder and helping her stand. They walked through the door. It was a narrow dimly lit hallway. They walked slowly through it. Wes began to tell Michelle what had happened while Spirit started to heal the bump on her head. After a few minutes of walking there was a door with light surrounding it at the end of the hallway.

"Let's hurry that might be a way to the top," Spirit said excited.

They started to hurry to the end. They got to a shabby door that light was flowing into and opened it.

"Oh My God," Michelle gasped covering her mouth.

"You've got to be kidding me," Wes said.

"We're never going to meet up with Michael," Spirit said shaking her head.

They were standing on a balcony that was above a large underground city. People were moving in the streets below them. Towers made of what looked like gold were gleaming off a palace in this distance. They looked up to see where the light was coming from. At the top of the cavern was a glass orb and inside it was a weird glowing light that looked like and felt like a small sun.

"What is this place," Wes said.

"I don't know but one thing I know," Spirit told him, "Michael didn't know about this place."

**Chapter 14**

**Magic and Tech**

The sun was shining brightly and Michael was standing in front of an orange house barefooted the green grass was itching the bottom of his feet.

"Michael," two young girls were calling to him while running toward him.

Michael looked around. He saw the street lined with the houses he knew a long time ago. He knew the girls from that time as well. .

"I have to get you two out of here," he was telling them, "I found out that something bad is going to happen soon." He ran toward them, but could not reach them. He looked behind him and there was two angels holding him back.

"You cannot interfere," they were saying in a warped voice.

"No, No, I have to help them," he yelled tears running down his face while struggling to get away.

"No, you will stay in heaven," they said. Michael attempted to escape their grips but they slowly pulled him away.

Michael opened his eyes and started coughing spitting out the sand in his mouth. He stood up knocking off the sand on him. Light poured in from the hole at the top of the lab. He looked over at the Tornado and Cannis who were still asleep. He could not make up his mind on whether or not he should wake them. If he was to wake them they might still want to fight, but on the other hand, they would still chase him down. Therefore, he decided to wake them so that he could settle it immediately.

Michael woke them up, after much spitting and coughing Cannis still wanted to fight but Tornado stopped her, and told her that he could not be a killer.

"Who are you," Tornado said, "and who would set you up? I want to find them so I can kick their butt for the money I lost."

"I'm St. Michael. My friends and I were chasing after a person who is collecting keys to unlock an object that could change the entire world," Michael said, "and by you saying that someone put a fake bounty out on us, means that he knows were after him."

"I am Lucas Sharpe a.k.a. Tornado," Tornado said introducing himself.

"And I'm Candice Remy, also known as Cannis because I'm part fox."

"It's nice to meet two good fighters such as yourselves out here even though it was my butt you were kicking," said shaking their hands, "Maybe you can help me."

"This object, how much money is it worth," Cannis asked with curious smile.

"I don't know a lot I guess," Michael told her, "but I don't really care I need to find my friends."

"We'll help you find them as payment for all the trouble we caused you," Tornado said.

"Thanks," Michael said shaking his hand, "by the way do you have a way to take off this anti healing seal thing."

"Um" Cannis said uneasily while scratching her head, "yeah we don't have a way to remove it."

"No way to remove it," Michael said unbelievingly.

"Don't worry, the Geeks in Tech City are the ones who remove the netting," Tornado said reassuringly.

"Do you know about any underground hideouts around here," Michael asked them.

"No but this is an underground lab," Cannis replied, "Why don't we see where it goes?"

They looked around and picked up their weapons, which had fallen in with them. They walked down the dusty hallway and then split up searching the many rooms. Michael had regained his strength while being unconscious created three fire rockets to follow each of them and light the way. Michael opened the door to a room that had humanoid looking robot parts on the table and around 50 battle type robots lined on the wall. Michael walked in, not seeing the infrared sensor. The battle robots' eyes lit up red they jumped off the wall and started walking toward him. They were black with sharp white blades attached to their wrists and feet.

"Oops, didn't mean to wake you," Michael said closing the door and then started running as fast as he could. He passed both Tornado and Cannis while running away.

"What's wrong," Cannis asked.

"No time to talk," Michael yelled, "Just run."

Tornado and Cannis looked down the hallway from which Michael had run down and saw an army of robots coming their way.

"DO YOU JUST ATTRACT TROUBLE," Tornado yelled at Michael's back while running.

"We'll hold up in that room right there," Michael yelled pointing straight ahead. They all jumped into the room and leaned against the door trying to hold back the machines.

"Michael give me a light," Tornado told him, "Maybe there's something in here we can use to barricade the door."

Michael's hand lit up and Tornado flicked a switch on the wall. The room lit up showing a lot of huge machinery. Michael went to push a large machine in front of the door when he saw something remarkable. He hurried and pushed the heavy machine in front of the door.

"You've got to see this," Michael said unbelieving, "there's a girl in a tube."

"Girl in a tube?"

They all walked over to a large tube with filled with blue liquid and floating inside it was a young girl. She looked to be around fifteen years old with long flowing blue hair. There were a lot of wire and tubes connected to her.

"Is there a way to get her out," Cannis asked looking at the tube trying to find an open switch. Michael pressed a green button on the tube. The tube glowed with a bright blue light, all the liquid drained out through a tube connected to the bottom of the main tube and then it opened. The banging on the door started to get worse. A robot smashed a hole through it with its fist.

"Look there's an emergency door lock button on that panel over there," said Michael noticing a yellow and black marked button, "When I say so press it." Michael's arm blazed up, the flames were intense and high.

"Fire Rocket Level Two," he shouted. The flames combined into a blue fire rocket that shot through the hole in the door.

"NOW," Michael yelled.

Tornado pressed it and a large steel door came down over the main door. They heard a large explosion. Michael turned around and looked at the girl.

The tubes and wires fell off her and she stood up.

"ACTIVATING H.I.L.D.E. ZERO, SYSTEMS CHECK COMPLETE," she said and then opened her eyes, "HELLO MASTER."

Her eyes were as blue into her hair. She was wearing blue wraps to hide her privates. The first person she looked at was Tornado. She ran up to him and hugged him.

"Hi, I'm Hilde and you are my Master," she told him. She was about as tall as Cannis but looked younger. As she hugged Tornado, she squeezed and his bones cracked.

"Let go please," he said in a wheezing voice. She let go and stepped back awaiting further instruction.

A loud drilling noise came from behind the steel door startling them. They all turned to look at where the sound had come from. A large chain saw with laser blades was cutting through the metal. Michael turned back to the girl.

"Do you know of there is any way to shut those other robots down," he asked her trying to stay calm. The girl ignored him talking to her.

"Hey I'm talking to you," he said waving his hand in front of her face.

"Hilde only listens to Master's questions," she said grabbing Michael's arm. Michael felt his arm bones crack and pain surge through it. This little robot girl was strong.

"Hilde, let go and answer him," Tornado commanded.

"Yes Master," Hilde said happily. She let go and Michael rubbed his arm.

"This healing seal is getting annoying," he thought to himself.

"Those are Hilde's predecessors," she started, "so the best way to beat them is to let Hilde fight them." She walked over to the control panel and scanned it.

"This should do it," she said happily pressing a button.

"No" they all shouted as the door opened and the robots started to rush in.

Michael, Tornado, and Cannis stood back to back, as the robots came in surrounding them. Hilde jumped over the control panel landing on top of a robots shoulder. She wrapped her legs around its head and twisted her whole body ripping its head completely off. The robot dropped to the ground as Hilde jumped off him kicking another robot in its metal like chest. Her leg went straight through it as though she was kicking through water. She was as fast as she was strong. She pulled her leg out of the robot. All of the robots started focusing on her. As they ran by Michael punched one of the robots in its face and released a fire rocket blowing its head clear off. Tornado pulled out his sword and sliced the legs of two of the robots and then he and Cannis put their blades into the robot's heads. Once they looked back at Hilde, they noticed that she had finished all of the other robots. Michael looked from her to Tornado and laughed.

"Wow I won't be messing with you anymore, _Master_," Michael, teased. "She's amazing."

"Did you watch Hilde, Master," Hilde asked happily.

"Don't call me Master," Tornado commanded.

"Then what would Master like me to call him," Hilde said looking down.

"Just call me Tornado," he told her.

"T-o-r-n-a-d-o," Hilde said out loud, "O.K., who is Master Tornado's friends."

"I just told you not to call me . . . ?" Tornado started, "never mind this is Michael and this is Cannis."

"Then I'll call you Archangel Dude," she said pointing at Michael, then she pointed at Cannis, "you will be Dog."

Michael was shocked she could tell what he was just by looking at him, but Cannis looked irritated.

"Just call me by my name, thank you," Cannis said trying hard to sound nicely.

"Dog sounds fun," Hilde said happily, and then she gave her an evil look while grabbing Tornado's arm, "Hilde knows _other_ nicknames for women." She turned with Tornado to walk out of the room. Michael had to hold Cannis back to stop her from going after Hilde.

"Calm down she's just a young girl cyborg thing," Michael told her. "She's like a child and only wants attention."

"Is there a way to get to get to Tech City from this lab," Tornado asked Hilde as they were walking through the hallways. Michael and a calmed down Cannis had just walk from the lab and were behind them. Hilde's eyes glowed brighter as she looked from side to side scanning the entire lab with her sensors.

"Follow me," she said happily letting Tornado go and skipping ahead of them. They followed her through the hallway and after about five minutes of walking, they came to a closed door. They opened it and walked in. At the end of the room was a large orb with a door on it. As they walked closer to it, they could see it was sitting on a track and there was an opening to a tunnel in front of it.

"This tunnel will take us to a lab that is five miles outside of Tech city but it will take two hours," Hilde told them smiling and looking at Tornado as though she was expecting a treat. Michael bumped him.

"Good job, Hilde," Tornado said awkwardly catching on. A big smile spread across Hilde's face and she started pressing buttons on the control panel the track and lights on the orb turned on.

"Well let's get going," Michael said excited, "To Tech City."

"To Tech City," everyone echoed.

**Chapter 15**

**Friends from the Past**

Wes, Spirit, and Michelle were walking in the streets of this large underground city. They had covered themselves in hooded robes that they had found on a laundry line hanging between houses. There were many different types of people here. Spirit noticed that there were magic users juggling fire and doing other spells for entertainment. Some were using some weird glowing machines that had words and pictures on a screen and they were pushing buttons on them. She saw a few people flying around some with brooms or magic carpets. A couple of people were flying without anything at all.

"What is this place," Spirit asked the others.

"Who are you asking," Wes replied back to her using a sarcastic tone, "we've been stuck in magic land just like you."

"It has an Arabic feel to it though, right Wes," Michelle said trying to avoid an argument.

"Yeah," Wes said, "Your right, it does."

"We need to find a way out," Michelle told them.

They walked around until they found themselves on a market street. The entire area was loud and full with people. As they were walking past carts selling different vegetables, fruits, and other fresh food the ground began to rumble then stopped.

"What the heck was that," Spirit said stumbling.

"Sorry," Wes said behind her while rubbing his stomach, "but I'm really hungry."

"I see your powers are working again," Spirit replied.

"It's because we're closer to the rocky part of the earth. Above all of this there is only sand," Wes told her, "I might be a Guardian but it's impossible for me to control a grain of sand."

"But how do those nomads and Uriel do it," Spirit wondered aloud to the others.

"That's because that's what their specialty is," Michelle replied, "Just like no one can control wind like you."

Spirit started to get a hold on the idea. Wes walked over to one of the vendors selling apples picked two up and ate them both in four bites. The merchant seeing this ran over to the side of the stand Wes was standing. He had an angry look on his face.

"You THERE, I hope you're going to pay for that," he yelled then stuck his hand out as if awaiting payment.

"Sure what is it like twenty silver pieces," Wes said looking taken back at the angry merchant. He pulled out his pouch full of gold and silver.

"HAHA, funny joke," the merchant said sarcastically, "More like ten gold pieces."

"TEN GOLD PIECES," Wes yelled out, "YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR MIND, OLD MAN. I'M NOT PAYING THAT MUCH FOR THAT."

"Just pay the man Wes," Michelle told him trying to remain calmly.

"Heck no, I am not wasting my gold," Wes said starting to calm down, "plus _who's_ gonna stop me."

The merchant reached up to the top of his cart where a little bell was hanging. He rang it three times.

"Come on Wes give him the money already," Spirit pleaded pulling the sleeves on his robe. Forgetting his strength he shrugged her off and she stumbled back.

"You JERK," she yelled at him regaining her balance, but when she stood back up straight she felt a knife being held up to her neck and a person behind her. She looked at the others and they had people holding them at knifepoint as well. The culprits were dressed up in dark brown and black robes. Black cloth covered up their faces up to the eyes and ivory colored headbands covered their foreheads. The people started to clear the area around them. They ran inside and into other streets until the entire alley stood empty.

"Do not move or else," a female voice said with force in her ear.

"See what you've gotten us into, you ROCK HEAD," Michelle yelled at Wes.

"What is the problem here, Merchant," the one who had a hold of Michelle demanded.

"They refused to pay for what he had ate, Officer," the merchant told the ninja like officer while pointing at Wes.

"Why do you refuse to pay this man," the officer that was holding Wes asked while putting the knife closer to his neck. This officer was a male. "Are you thieves."

"I refused to pay him because his prices are bogus," Wes said angrily then continued, "and you need to get off me with this knife, before I get angry." The officer who was holding Michelle spoke up. She was also a woman.

"How much are your apples," she asked curiously.

"Two and a half gold pieces for each apple," the merchant mumbled.

"That's outrageous," she replied.

"Thank You," Wes told her, "at least someone agrees with me."

"Quiet, Cadet Jess," the officer commanded while holding Wes, "You should have asked about the prices of the merchants' apples before you ate them . . ." The officer went into this long speech about the law. Spirit looked at Michelle and she winked at her. Spirit winked back. Michelle was telling her to be prepared to attack if anything goes bad.

"... So now we're going to the palace for the queens to judge you," the officer said finishing his long speech.

"Heh, that's where your wrong officer," Wes replied smiling, "what makes you think I'm going to see your ugly, old queens."

Wes' dragon arm ripped through its robe's sleeve as large spikes made of stone shot out from it. The officer jumped back from him while trying to cut him. The blade and Wes' skin sparked from the impact. Michelle turned into a swarm of bats and flew away from her officer reappearing next to Wes. The merchant ran off.

"I am so going to crush you into a diamond after this," she told him.

Spirit dispersed into the air and reappeared a few feet away. The ninja officers jumped back and regrouped five feet across from them. Spirit noticed that the one that was holding her had a blonde ponytail. The male officer that was holding Wes had spiky brown hair while the one named Jess had brunette hair. The blonde girl took a deep breath and blew out a blast of fire. Spirit jumped up and grabbed her bow from over her shoulder. She launched an arrow made of carbon dioxide at the girls' blast and it turned to a puff of smoke. The officer fell to her knees gagging from the smoke. The male officer had a light blue aura emanating from him. The air around them started to get cold. He punched the ground and the ground started to turn blue. Ice spread across the ground. Spirit and Michelle went to jump in the air, but the ice rose up off the ground and surrounded them. Wes stood there with a smile on his face as the ice engulfed him.

"See Cadets that's how you catch a crook," the male officer said. The ground started to rumble. The carts and stands on the street were falling and collapsing. Large formations made of rock started to jut out of the ground tearing up the street and ripping through the ice. Wes flexed his muscles causing the ice around him to shatter. He stretched his dragon arm out and smacked both of icicles that were Spirit and Michelle and broke the ice.

"Do you think you can beat me," Wes yelled out.

Michelle's magic rings appeared around her wrists. She used her reverse gravity magic to lift the three ninjas into the air. The ninja named Jess held her own hands together and five clones of her appeared out of thin air surrounding Michelle and jumped toward her. Breaking concentration Michelle dropped the ninjas. Michelle disappeared in a swarm of bats and the three of them regrouped. So did the ninjas. Both teams charged at each other and went to attack, but the ninjas could not use their abilities and a barrier had formed in front of Wes, Michelle, and Spirit. Two pink catlike creatures stood at the top of the stone buildings surrounding the street. They had oversized heads with strange glowing lines on their body and looked somewhat alien-like. The team of ninjas turned to them and dropped to their knees. The creatures jumped down onto the battlefield and then they stood up onto two feet. A bright light emitted from both of them. Where the cat creatures had stood were now two beautiful, young teenage girls that looked no older than sixteen did. They both had light brown skin and dark brown eyes. One was short, petite, and wearing a long black, sleeveless dress made of a silk like material that had a slit going up to her left knee. The bottom of the dress had a pink sakura leaves design stitched into it and she wore black opened toe shoes. Strapped to her back was a long staff with a large blade on the end of it. The other one was taller by almost a head and dressed in complete opposite. She wore blue jeans and a white long-sleeve shirt with the words Bad to the Bone in bold blue print on it. On her back was a large broad sword that was as long as she was tall. Hundreds of long, thin braids of dark hair fell across her face while her shorter sisters' hair was in a ponytail that curled up on top of her hair.

"Excuse Me," the shorter sister said in a matter of fact tone waving her index finger, "I know you are not messing up my kingdom. Who do you think you are?"

Spirit and Michelle looked at the girls in shock. They had cancelled out the ninjas abilities and by the way, the ninjas were acting, you could tell they were the ones in charge. They had the same ability as the white-haired kid could they be with him. Wes was looking at them and in the back of his mind; something was telling him they looked familiar.

"What my sister means to say is," the taller one started then jumped down to ground level with a large thud, "Report."

"Queen J, we came upon these intruders stealing apples from a cart," the male ninja shot out.

"That's a lie," Wes shot out, "I was going to pay and then the merchant gave out this ridiculous price."

Queen J turned and looked at Wes. She gave him a puzzled look.

"Hey D come down here quickly," she yelled to her sister. Queen D jumped down gracefully, doing a front flip as she landed. She walked over by her sister and they whispered to each other for a few minutes.

"What's your name," Queen D asked once they had stopped.

"I'm Wes," he told them, "That's Spirit and that's Michelle."

"I knew it," J shouted out, "Your Michael's friend." Wes looked confused; he still could not remember them.

"You don't recognize us do you," D said smiling. Wes shook his head.

"We're Michael's sisters," they said together. Wes looked shocked. Then Michelle's eyes got big after she looked at them and remembered.

"OH, MY GOD, I haven't seen you in a forever," Michelle shouted, "how are you still alive after so long."

"You were this size when I last saw you," Wes said smiling putting his hand at his waist level.

"Yeah we've grown up a lot since then," J replied, "How's Michael doing."

"Good I hope," Michelle told them, "We got separated from him." Spirit was standing back from them feeling out of place.

"Hey Spirit, stop standing away from everyone and come meet Michael's sisters," Wes said to her after noticing her facial expression.

"This is Michael's new student," Wes told them pointing at her.

"Hi, so you people are angels too," Spirit asked them.

"Oh no," D answered laughing; "We were human beings." Spirit had a confused look on her face.

"You see when Michael came to earth back then he did it by being born," Wes explained to Spirit, "so he would have a family and have the fun of being human and then once he hit sixteen he would get his powers back. J and D are the sisters that he had in that family."

Some of the villagers were poking their heads around the corners and out the windows of the buildings around the street. They were curious on whether or not it was safe enough to come back out to the street.

"I think we should head back to the palace," J said as some of the kids that were watching waved at her and she waved back.

"Sure lead the way," Wes said.

"Cadet Jess help escort us to the castle," Queen D commanded, "You two get a cleanup crew out here and then return back to work."

They all jumped up onto the roof of one of the buildings beside them and then with cadet Jess leading the way they traveled roof to roof to the castle.

Twenty minutes later, they reached the castle. When they stopped at the front of the castle walls, they had to wait for a drawbridge to cross a water-filled moat.

Michelle asked Queen J.

"There are underwater springs all throughout the desert," she replied back. "We bring it to us using pipes."

The drawbridge came down and they walked into the castle courtyard Spirit noticed that the castle was a little smaller than the one in Diamond Kingdom. On their left, there was a group of ninjas doing exercises. On their right was a beautiful garden full of different colored flowers, sakura trees, and cherry blossom trees.

"Wow so beautiful," Spirit said.

"Thanks a lot," Queen D said sincerely, "So your Michael's new student. Is he being a good teacher?"

"Yes, he has been teaching me for a while now and I have been able to manage so far," Spirit told her as they were walking through the castle doors. Ivory and white marble made up the castle walls while the tower domes were made of gold. Large windows allowed a lot of light to filter in and gleam off the surfaces. Beautiful wool and silk rugs lined the floors and walls. They walked into the throne room and Wes laughed. There were two golden thrones in the middle of the throne room and some comfortable chairs around them, but that was the only thing normal about it. The room layout split it into two sides. One the left was an Olympic style gymnasium and on the right, a large basketball court.

"Ah you two never change," Wes exclaimed.

"Not to be in a rush, but we can only afford to spend a night here before we need to get back to the top," Michelle asked, "There is a way back right?"

"Yes a magical barrier keeps this place from collapsing and we built tunnels to the top. We can take you there tomorrow morning, you're in Silicon Country now, not too far from Tech City," J answered her, "you might not realize it but its evening time up top."

"Really that's neat," Spirit said.

"Let's get down to catching up," Wes said as they all grabbed a seat, "because I have a bunch of questions to ask you two and I'm sure you have some about Michael."

"Okay, we'll try to answer as much as we can since we're the only ones here that remember anything," D told them, "Cadet Jess dismissed." The cadet left the room and once they heard the snap of the door Wes spoke.

"How are you still alive after so long and I heard that your state was completely bombed twenty minutes before the change? Why is it that Michael is constantly in his original form? And how is it that all of us still have our memories of what happened before the change but not what happened after?"

"See we asked Michael some of these question but we're not satisfied with some of his answers," Michelle said seriously, "we know how angels like to bend the truth so that people feel better. We were going to ask Kim when we saw her but she'd probably hide some things too if Michael asked her to."

"We know you'll tell us what happened because you have nothing to hide," Wes replied. Spirit was feeling uncomfortable hearing them talk about Michael this way. Wes seeing Spirit shift her body seating knew what she was thinking.

"We're not saying that we don't trust Michael," He began, "we just want to get the full story."

"We understand," the Queens said in unison looking at them.

"But to explain everything, we have to go back to the back to the day the change happened and the first hundred years following it. It's in the story of the first century that you'll find what you want to know." They all sat back and listened to the story. It would change a lot of what they thought had happened.

On top of a dark, desert storm cloud above Tech City three people stood. The wind blowing fiercely about them yet none of their clothes was blowing around. Lightening was flashing all around them. The young man with white hair and the green shirt from Diamond City was standing on top of his sword while the others stood on the cloud itself.

"You can handle this right," he asked the guy standing across from him, "you're as bad as it gets aren't you?"

His skin tone was a light brown like Michael and he looked the same age. He had black braids in the same style J had except his were thicker. When lightning flashed, his eyes did not show a gleam of light. On his back were dark black feathered wings that gave off a dark aura. He wore a blue hooded coat with black pants. He wore black combat boots and studded fist rings. Beside him was a small teenage girl. She looked around fourteen years old. She had bright white hair and pale skin. She had a feathered wing on her back and the right one was robotic. On both of her hands, she had robotic gloves with round orbs protruding from the palm, but on her left arm the robotic part went all the way to her shoulder. Covering her eyes was a hi-tech visor that stretched around the back of her head. She wore a black gothic Lolita style dress that contrasted against the white robotic parts.

"Of course I can handle it," said the black winged guy, "I've fought them all before."

"Good because I'm only a little bit away from getting into Tech City," he replied, "I have a way to stop them from getting in and I have someone to slow them down while I'm in there. I just need you to stop them from following me once I escape. You're my guaranteed plan."

"Why not just let me finish them now," the winged man asked.

"I have plans for them later on. Besides you couldn't do anything with the one group right now," the silver haired teen said, "not with the twins that might be as strong as me and I don't even know where the archangel is."

"Humph. Whatever you say," the winged man laughed, "just remember my payment."

"Of course Nox," the silver haired teen sighed, "you want a wish."

"That's right, I scratch your back you scratch mine. Come on Aires," Nocturnal called to the girl, "we have to get to the other side of Tech city." They both floated into the sky and flew off into the clouds. The silver haired boy looked into the sky he could see the stars since he was over the storms. He stood looking up into the stars.

"MY VICTORY IS ASSURED," he yelled to them, "I will bring you back no matter how many cities I have to destroy. NO ONE WILL STOP ME BECAUSE. . ."

"THIS IS _MY_ _STORY_"

**Chapter 16 **

**After the Change, St. Michael's Story **

Chaos. That would be the word to sum up what happened the day of the change. We were only nine or ten when it happened. Earlier Michael had come over and told us to grab our stuff and come with him. The opposing side of the war was planning to bomb our area in an hour. In the book of death, we were marked to die on that day. When he walked out of our house ahead of us, the archangels' Raphael and Uriel were there to intercept him. He went to fight them and two more angels appeared from behind him and grabbed him. Michael struggled but the angels pulled him up into the sky until he disappeared from our sight.

Our parents gathered us up into the car and we headed out. We had twenty minutes left. We drove maybe twenty miles from our house before we became stuck in after work traffic. Looking at the clock, we saw that we had ten minutes left. Bumper-to- bumper cars spread as far as far as the eye could see. Our mother started to cry but got a hold of her emotions and told us to get out of the car and we will walk our way out. They both piggybacked the two of us and ran as fast as they could. We got maybe two miles and in the distance behind us, we heard the sound of a plane engines. We turned and we could see two planes dropping bombs over the area we had just come from. They came within ten miles of us and then turned around. They had run out of bombs. Smoke and debris filled the air.

We rejoiced and my father hugged me and threw me into the air. My mother was kissing and hugging my sister. We had escaped in time. We were happy as can be for being alive but we started to feel sorry about the people who had died, about our home, and what we would do now as we walked back to the car. That is when we heard them.

There were four more planes flying in the air in the distance and two were coming toward us. We turned and started running away. Other people had abandoned their cars and were running as well. The planes had come within fifteen miles of us when they started dropping bombs. We could feel the heat behind us but we did not dare look back. They were coming closer. It was then when we heard a loud crack above us and saw Michael fall in front of us in his angel form. He landed with a thud. He stood up and surrounded us in a white orb of light and then we teleported. We landed ten miles away from where we had been. Mom got up and hugged Michael. However, Michael still seemed sad.

"There are four nuclear missiles headed to this state right now," he said tears rolling down his face, "I meant to teleport you to another state and I only got this far." He dropped to his knees and punched the ground repeatedly.

"I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH STRENGTH," he yelled. We all took a closer look at Michael and saw that he had scratches and cuts all over his body. His face was bruised and swollen. Blood was flowing freely from his a cut on his forehead. One of his wings looked as though someone had ripped it in half.

"What happened to you?" Mom had asked him shock.

"I fought to get back here," Michael cried, "And it's all in vain."

"Do you have enough power to take at least two people away?" Dad asked him.

"No, you can't be thinking of what I think you are," Michael said while standing up. Dad hit him and Michael stumbled back looking shocked.

"I didn't ask for your opinion, I asked if you had enough energy to take two people away," Dad demanded.

In the distance up in the air, they saw large rockets heading their way. Mom and Dad gave us kisses and hugs, while saying their good-byes. They pushed us toward Michael.

"Take care of your sisters," Dad told him. "It's not your fault that this happened. It was out of your hands."

"Just remember that we love you and take care of your sisters," Mom said teary eyed, "I'm sure we'll see you again upstairs, right."

"Yeah," Michael said tears in his eyes. The missiles in the sky turned downward and you could hear the loud whistling sound.

"GO," Mom and Dad, said while giving us a small smile. Michael snapped his fingers and a white orb enveloped us again. We started crying and yelling. Michael grabbed our hands and held them tight as we rose into the air. The nuclear bombs hit the ground and we teleported away.

We landed on the western side of the country. I believe it was somewhere in Texas or Arizona. All I remember was that when we landed Michael fell onto the ground. His body was slowly healing itself. A minute later at least twenty angels surrounded us. Two white lights shot out of their hands at us and then we blacked out. We had died. The next thing I know is that I felt this warmth around my body and I opened my eyes to see Michael covering D and me with a white light he was emitting from his hands. I stood up and Michael pulled D up to her feet. We looked at Michael. His wings were on fire and so was the area around us. We looked around and saw that the area looked like a blast zone. There were at least three intact bodies lying in the distance. He looked at us both sadly.

"I'm sorry girls for now that I've brought you back from death, I have doomed you to an eternal life like mine."

I have never heard Michael sound so sad about his immortality. He really just wants to be human. He has seen too many things happen and lost too many friends. It was at that moment when the change in the world happened and that boy made his wish. Light engulfed us and then it was all that surrounded us. We could see each other and then we could see other people in the distance but our surroundings were all white. It was like being in an entirely white room. Then as if it were a painting or a drawing grass appeared below us it was emerald green and soft. Then above us, the sky appeared clear and blue. The sun was bright and warming. Trees started sprouting up out of the ground around us and before we knew it, we were standing in the middle of a forest. There were squirrels above us and there was a family of deer about fifty feet away from us. The people that we saw when the world was all white were gone. We both looked at Michael but he looked as clueless as we did. He looked around curiously.

"Well at least we're out of danger," he said relieved and then he collapsed. The flames that were covering his wings and hands extinguished themselves. His wings then disappeared and that sign appeared on the back of his coat. We sat down and waited. It was not the first time we had seen Michael past out after a fight. After about ten minutes of waiting, we got impatient and walked away from Michael. We were curious about what had just happened and wanted to see what was going on. We walked into a clearing and saw a savanna like field ahead of us. There were weird looking trees and high grass. Ahead of us there was a small pond surrounded by animals. The weird thing about it is that it was not just deer and other normal woodland animals. There were zebras, antelope, giraffes, and other animals you would expect to find in Africa. We walked farther away from the trees toward the pond to get a better view of the animals. It was not until we were maybe twenty yards away from the pond that we saw them.

Lions.

We looked at them and they looked at us. We stopped moving and stood still. There were two of them on one side of us. D pulled on my sleeve and whispered in my ear telling me that there were three on the other. They were probably sneaking up on the animals ahead of us and we had just walked by them. The two to the left of us looked at us and then turned away and went ahead. We must not have looked like a decent meal to them. We still stayed still and then turned to look at the three on the right. Two of them had started to move ahead. The third one looked younger than the others stayed back and watched us.

"Shoo you stupid cat," D was said quietly.

The lion became curious of us and walked slowly toward us. We started to walk backwards. He quickened his pace and we turned and ran back toward the trees. The lion started to chase. D who was always faster was out ahead of me. She ran toward a tree and jumped onto a branch. If it were not for the lion, I would have stopped and stared in amazement. D could never jump that high before. I reached the tree and jumped up. I could not jump as high as she could but I got close. D grabbed my hand to pull me up. The lion was beneath me trying to grab one of my dangling feet with its teeth. I could feel its breath against my legs. My hand started to slip from D's grip. I fell down toward the lion and started kicking the lions' face as I was falling. I kicked it three solid times in the nose and heard a crack. I had broken the lion's nose. I landed on the ground and kicked the lion in its side. My strength lifted the lion off its feet, threw it back ten feet, it landed and tumbled sideways. It got up and ran away limping.

D jumped down, flipped forward into the air, and landed gracefully.

"THAT WAS SO COOL," she shouted at me.

"YOU TOO," I told her.

We ran back quickly to where Michael was laying. His body looked healed up and he was still sleeping restfully. Therefore, we did the practical thing that any eight year old would do and we woke him. When we woke him, we told him of what had happened. We showed him our new abilities. We both were stronger and had more agility. I had more strength and D had more agility. Michael looked up at the sky and the shadows. When we had teleported to the west, it was in the afternoon. The sun returned to the noon spot. Michael grabbed us both and his wings emerged from out of his back. We rose into the sky above the trees and looked around. There were no buildings in sight. Michael put us onto his back so that he could free his hands. He closed his right eye and then pressed on it. Inside his eye was a contact that Kim had given him. All the Guardians wore them. It had a global positioning computer in it. Michael opened his right eyelid and looked around.

"This is impossible," he whispered to himself, "according to the computer this isn't America. In fact the entire earth has been changed."

"How," D asked him.

"I don't know."

Michael flew around trying to find human life. After hours of flying and looking at trees, we reached a clearing. Underneath us, there was a herd of what looked like unicorns running together. Michael flew into something that was flying ahead of him. He pulled something off his face, and it was a pixie. It slapped him and then flew away when Michael let go. In the distance, I saw something that looked like a building. I tapped Michael on the head with my hand and told him. As we flew closer, it became clearer to us.

"It's a Princess Castle," D yelled out.

A big ivory castle stood that looked as though it came right out of a fairytale. We landed in front of it and there were a bunch of people around it. We dropped down from Michael's back and stretched. Michael let out a groan of pain reached for his eye and threw his contact to the ground.

"It had gone all fuzzy and bright," he told us when we asked. The people were from all over the world. They pointed at Michael after we landed. We saw them talk to each other while looking at him as we walked by. We walked around trying to find people that spoke English. We finally found a middle age Scottish person and asked him where he had come from.

"Aye, laddy I was just sitting in a bar and then I landed here and all these other blokes were here with me. Hey, I recognize you your one of those Guardian things from America used to worship ya when I was a young lad." Michael told him he was mistaken and quickly pulled us away.

We walked through the village where there were already weird shaped houses built and buildings that looked like stores. There were gardens in front of some of the houses and there were many people picking fruits out of it eating. We walked into the courtyard which was packed full of people to see if we could find anyone we recognize.

People were yelling and talking in a bunch of different languages. No one could understand anyone and many people were starting fights and arguments over the lack of understanding. It was at that moment we found out that we were not the only people with powers. Two people got into a fight and they both pulled out some long sticks they had in their pockets and pointed them at each other. Fire erupted from one while a long spike of ice erupted from another. The ice pierced through his shoulder and caused him to point his fire-spewing wand in another direction. It lit the ground by others up in flames. Within a minute there were about fifty different people pointing wands at each other. A little boy stumbled into the middle. He startled the angry people and a dozen spells shot off. I jumped into the middle of it trying to protect the boy. All of the spells stopped as though they someone automatically turned them off. I looked at my body and I was glowing red. I looked over at Michael and D. Her body was glowing red too. Michael looked surprised. However, I think it was not just us. Everyone in this village could use magic. No one knew how he or she knew about it or how he or she learnt it.

Michael walked back over to us after questioning some of the people that were there. He looked at us and went to say something then stopped. He scratched his head thinking and then said,

"You know you two are probably the strongest things here."

We looked at him confused.

"The abilities in this world won't affect you two, I wonder why."

We did not understand him at the time I mean really we were only ten. We looked around at the kids around us mixed in with the adults. Some were crying because they could not locate their parents and then we started crying.

"I miss mommy and daddy," I cried and then D started crying and saying the same. Michael looked at us. We thought he would try to stop us and calm us down. He too had tears streaming from his eyes. He got on his knees and hugged us. We were all in a circle crying. After about five minutes, he stood up. The sky was looking dusky.

No one had tried to go into the castle since we had been there. The people just stayed in the courtyards and some of them had gone into the houses in the village in front of the castle that had also appeared there. We walked through the village looking at all the unique buildings that were around them. There was an upside down building, a building that looked like a flower, and even one building shaped like a shoe. In the distance, you could see a large bubble-shaped dome. The setting sun was gleaming off it. A loud symphony of trumpets came from the castle walls. We turned around and rushed back to see what was going on. The once closed gates that they could not open when they had first arrived now stood open. At least twenty guards dressed in silver armor with a gold emblem appeared lining the entrance of the castle. In each of their hands, small swords with inscriptions in ancient Greek embedded into them gleamed from the last rays of sunlight. A middle age man and woman walked in between the lines of soldiers. They both wore large gold and diamond crowns, expensive looking red wool, and silk robes. A man in red and gold clothing ran out and yelled, "Presenting your royal majesties, King Raphael and Queen Faith."

"What do you mean King and Queen? I don't follow no King or Queen," a man yelled from the crowd that was watching the King and Queen. There was a general agreement throughout the crowd. A blonde, messy haired man ran up toward them and pulled out his wand. He blasted a ray of dark energy at the King and Queen. Three soldiers put their swords up in front of the blast and it reflected back onto the man and the people surrounding him. The man who sent the spell received most of the reflected spell. He bent over from the pain and both of his hands grabbed his face. The other's around him that received some of the spell also bent forward or fell to the ground. The last rays of sunlight disappeared behind the forest behind the village. The only light was coming from the pixie lit street lamps and the full moon high in the sky. Two men and a woman started sprouting fur and letting out painful groans as their bodies contorted in weird directions. The people around them backed away in fear. The man who sent the spell stood up straight. His hair had turned jet black and straight. His tanned skin was now pale and when he opened his mouth, two long, sharp fangs shone in the moonlight. His clothes had changed two and he wore a gothic style suit equipped with a cloak. The man had turned into a vampire, the other's werewolves, and two people even grew eight feet tall, muscular, and their skin became rough and greenish. The man spoke again, but this time he had a thick Transylvanian accent,

"Look at what you have done to us. We'll make you pay."

The group of monsters charged at the guards. In order to prevent more casualties Michael intervened. He raised a wall of fire around them and stopped them from reaching the guards. He walked through the crowd up to where the fire was and we walked behind him cautiously.

"We don't need to start any more trouble then what we're already in," Michael told them.

Nevertheless, the man looked unconvinced; he stared at Michael then at the King his face full of hatred.

"You have made a bad enemy today;" he said and then lifted his cloak over all of the monsters and disappeared. That person later became the first king of Chaos City. The King and Queen invited us into the palace. Michael thought that they were just a family trying to take control at first but then found out that these people and the guards around them truly thought they were really royalty. Their spell knowledge was extensive and powerful. They could tell you how their ancestors built the castle and their history. It was like they were either nuts or they had been put there as the role of leadership of this magical place by some magical force. In the following days, they assigned jobs to the people so that the village would run smoothly. All was going well, people slowly got to know at least basic English since it was the language used by the royalty and learned to somewhat communicate. A school taught the people how to use magic correctly. Therefore, people started using it to do everyday chores. The village started to grow. The King and Queen put Michael in charge of security. Men went to survey the land surrounding the village. They came back with stories of dragons in the mountains and elves villages that were full of people that had pointy ears, pale skin, and a sense of supremacy. We also found out that Chaos City was also getting larger and filled with even more dangerous beings such as goblins, ogres, and orcs. There were monsters patrolling the border. Over the years battles would be fought between Chaos City and Diamond Kingdom but they would be nothing compared to what was to come.

Ten to fifteen years past and the three major lands had found out about each other. At this time, the only thing separating them was grasslands and forests. To the northeast was Tech City and to the southeast was Fight City. The leaders of each of the lands got along fine. We were trading goods between each other and the world seemed to be somewhat normal. It was not until twenty years had passed since the change had happened that something went wrong. Demons decided to rise from Hell and take control. They sneaked into the governments of both Tech and Fight City and convinced them to go to war with each other and Diamond and Chaos City. With the war getting worse and heavy casualties received on both sides, Michael decided to send the two of us to a safe place. The neutral zone was a small city in the middle of the grasslands called Gaventown. As he headed back to Diamond Kingdom, he got a few miles away from where he left us and confronted the King of the Demon Army, Michael's brother Nocturnal, also known as the Guardian of Darkness. Of course at Nocturnal's side like always was Michael's former student, the Guardian of Light Aires. The fight that followed was the worse fight we have ever seen.

Their power was so strong that the environment around them turned to desert. It took all of the power D and I had to stop the town from becoming a burial ground. Wave after wave of sand came miles high. We created a barrier using one of the abilities we had gained over the years. The sand pushed us down and buried the entire town. Luckily, one of the abilities of the locals was the ability to make a self-energizing mini sun. We were close to an underground spring and the trees and plants were still there so we had oxygen. A fire mage burned the walls to the point of glass so that the sand would not collapse on us. It took almost a month to create paths to the surface. Once we reached the top and looked around nothing was there but desert. For saving them, the people made us the head of the government. Even though we looked as though we were teenagers, we were in our late twenties. We heard stories from people who had managed to cross the desert, which was much cooler back then than it is now. They told us how on the day of the battle. Demons rose attempting to conquer the land and angels flew down from heaven to help Michael. After a month and a half of being living underground, angels appeared in our city. They were erasing people's memories of angels and demons. They were also creating order by making people forget about the change. People now believed that things were like this all along and everyone now spoke English. We managed to get the angels to tell us about how the war was over and how people now forgot that it had happened. We found out that they spared Michael his life for helping us escape death, but as punishment, he must stay on earth and our memories wiped clean. They tried to erase our memories but thanks to the fact that we were now demi angels, it did not have an effect on us, but we did not tell the angels that. Hundreds of years have passed and world has not changed much since the angels. We could have searched for Michael but this place needs us more. Recently we found out that Kim was in Tech City and she told us how Michael searched for us and how he sealed up his power out of grief. We wish we knew more but that is all we know so far up to this point in time.

**Chapter 17**

**Reaching for Tech City**

Wes, Michelle, and Spirit sat looking at D and J in shock. There was so much that Michael did not tell them.

"But why is it that I didn't remember anything about the Guardians until a few months ago," Michelle said confused, "It wasn't until I met that guy King Taurus was talking to that it all came back to me."

"The same goes for me I didn't even think anything other than food, eat, and sleep until that guy came and got me," Wes replied while thinking about it, "It's like I was under a spell." Dee and Jess thought for a second at looked at each other as though a light bulb went off, turned to look at them, and said at the same time.

"The memory spell probably got you."

"Though I don't know why that guy would unlock your memories," Jess said looking at them curiously.

"Tell us about him." Michelle and Wes looked at Spirit. Spirit looked back at the two of them wondering why they were staring at her.

"What? I know as much as you two know," she told them looking taken back.

"Yeah, but you're the only one that saw his strength," Wes told her while scratching his head. Spirit thought about it trying to focus on the events that happened on that fateful day.

"The guy was powerful but he didn't give off the feeling of evil. It was more as if he was mad about the world itself. He could have easily killed off all the soldiers that tried to stop him, but instead he only delayed them. He had silver hair and a large sword with a type of beam in it. He even took away Michael's wings for an hour."

"He could be like us and not be affected by this world and adapt to the abilities around him," D suggested to them.

"What do you mean adapt," Michelle asked her confusion shone on her face.

"Well when we first came here we had enhanced strength and speed," Dee began, "But over time we learned that we also had the ability to learn others abilities. That's why we can shape shift into catlike creatures and create barriers."

"Oh, Michael calls them Negaters," Michelle told them.

"So the silver hair guy might also have angel DNA in him too," Wes asked.

"Maybe," J answered.

"I remember you two now," Spirit said to them slamming her fist into her hand as though the idea just popped into her head, "there are paintings of you in the same corridor as Michael's. I always wondered about them because of course you two and Michael is brown while every other portrait of my ancestors are pale skinned."

"Yeah there aren't any African Americans in your family tree," D said laughing.

"A-Africon Americons," Spirit said sounding it out.

"It's what light brown people like Michael and us were called in our time," J told her, "I guess nobody uses it anymore since now there's no such thing as Africa anymore. That's one reason why I'm glad the change happened because there's no such thing as different anymore."

"You said something about an ex-student of Michael's," Spirit asked. Michelle and Wes looked uncomfortable with the topic as they shifted around in their chairs. D smiled at them and laughed, so did J.

"I can tell by the way Michelle and Wes look that they don't want anyone to spill the beans about Aries. Lucky for them we were to young at the time to know what really happened that made her join Nocturnal. So if you want the truth I suggest you ask Michael himself."

"So Michael was banished from heaven," Wes said aloud, "It explains a lot. I knew it would come down to that in time with the way things were going."

Spirit remembered when Michael first explained to her about who he was and the Guardians. Michael had said that he had 'personal reasons' to stay on earth. That is what he must have meant.

A loud rumble echoed throughout the hall. "I guess that means that Wes is hungry again," D said smiling, "you never change I remember laughing at you when I was small and it happened. Wes laughed rubbing his stomach. They walked out of the throne room and into a dining area. Gold and black furniture and utensils placed neatly and many different types of food lay steaming on a fifteen-foot long table. Underneath the table was an elaborate black and gold traditional wool and silk rug. Spirit looked at the rug and fell in love.

"Wow I wish we had a rug like this in our palace," Spirit said.

"Oh really I think this rug is called a Nouri-something," J replied. They ate and talked happily. It was almost as if they did not have a mission to worry about, that it was all just friends enjoying a meal. It came back to reality soon though as a ringing noise came from D's pocket. She pulled out a machine that had the bottom of a phone with numbers and buttons but instead of a screen, there was a mirror. The head of a red haired young woman with glasses floated up from the mirror part of the phone. Lines would shimmer through the face every so often. It was a hologram.

"Sup Kim," D and J said.

"Hey, I have great news," Kim said. Another large head popped out from the mirror. "Oh my god . . . it is true," Michael, said surprised with tears in his eyes and a large smile on his face, "I'm coming to see you two in a couple of hours. And you three are already there," Michael continued while looking at Wes, Spirit, and Michelle with his eyes full of fire literally, "I was all worried and panicked over you guys and your enjoying a feast like we're not in the middle of a mission for the sake of humanity. I will take care of you guys later." He turned to the Queens and smiled. "See you in a few D and J." The hologram picture disappeared and D put the Holo-fone back in her pocket.

"He never changes," D said while smiling with tears in her eyes.

"That's true," J replied agreeing with her happily with tears in her eyes as well, "You guys are in so much trouble."

Spirit laughed she had never seen Michael look so happy.

_Five Hours Before_

"Aaaggghhh," the sound of screams came from the now speeding underground travel pod going faster that the speed of sound. Turning corners sharply making it seem like it was going to fly off the track at anytime. Michael, Tornado, and Cannis sat in the seats holding onto the puffy blue armrests for dear life and looking green in the face. Hilde sat in her seat calmly awaiting it to be over as if traveling at the speed of sound on a shaky pod was an everyday occurrence. Cannis had one of her arms around one of Tornado's arms. Hilde looked at them curiously and then looking at Tornado, she smiled and asked,

"Is there something Hilde can do for Master Tornado? Perhaps if she were to remove the DOG'S arm from around yours you wouldn't look so sickly."

Michael chuckled and Tornado whistled, Cannis gave Hilde an evil look to which she returned by sticking her tongue out. Cannis turned and looked at Tornado with the same evil look as the tube started to slow down a little.

"No, thank you Hilde I'll be fine the way I am," Tornado replied quickly. He knew that if he did not say anything Cannis would hurt him a lot.

"So Hilde how were you created," Michael asked.

"Hilde had a weak body and mind so scientists put Hilde to sleep and put in computer parts to make her strong and smart.

"Why were you in that tube if you were fine after the operation," Tornado asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"There was an attack on the lab and the scientist put Hilde into the tube so that she wouldn't get hurt." Cannis started to feel pity towards Hilde, she was pretty much like a little girl, and she looked at her and said,

"That must have been scary to watch."

"It was. Would you like to see? Hilde can show you."

Hilde's eyes glowed and projected a recording of what she had seen on the day of the attack onto the wall of the pod. The projections point of view was from Hilde's eyes. A female scientist whose face looked similar to Hilde ran towards her. Lights were flashing and a loud alarm was going off. (The sound was coming out of Hilde's mouth.) "Hilde we need to get you out of here or else you'll get hurt." The projection went fuzzy and then you could see a group of scientists running by them with red liquid on some of their lab coats. A voice was yelling over all of the noise.

"WHERE ARE THEY? WHERE ARE THE KEYS AND THE ORB LOCATED?" Michael raised his eyebrows. The scientist grabbed Hilde's hand and ran into the room with the life stasis tube in it.

"Get in there," the scientist told Hilde. The scientist closed the door and liquid started to fill the tube chamber. Hilde could barely hear the scientist outside the glass.

"He must never find out the location so I am restarting your program to erase your memories." The projection went gray and then what looked like a folder on a computer screen went up and you saw a file titled SECRET move into a file called main programs. Then the projection showed the lab through the dark blue liquid. A young boy with silver hair was yelling at the scientist that had put Hilde into stasis. The boy pulled his sword off his back and sliced through the scientist who turned instantly into dust. The boy looked at the stasis chamber but since the liquid was fresh which made it extremely dark so he could not see her. The boy walked out of the room.

A gray screen came up again saying, SAVE VIDEO BEFORE SHUT DOWN, Press Y for YES and N for NO. The letter Y appeared and then the projection went black.

"That's the guy my friends and I were chasing after," Michael shouted, "the one that set me up to be caught by you guys."

"He just turned that woman into dust with a slice of his sword," Tornado replied shocked. "I don't think you guys have a chance."

"Now that I think about it we saw no skeletons or bodies at that lab," Cannis told them. "That means that everybody was turned into dust."

Tears flowed from Hilde's eyes. She wiped them off her face and looked at her wet arm curiously.

"Why is water flowing from Hilde's eyes," she asked looking at the tears. "Hilde feels a pain in her heart she never felt before. It's like her heart is telling her that the scientist was someone important to Hilde."

Michael looked down at floor with his head in his hands. The woman was most likely Hilde's mother from the resemblance he saw in their faces. He felt anger building up inside towards that silver haired person. He had been killing people for so long and he was unaware of it. Michael started to feel angry with himself. While that guy was killing people, he was traveling around enjoying life in this world. Why was he not protecting people? Was that not the reason why he was on earth?

Michael felt something hit the top of his head hard and then felt a sharp pain come from the spot. Tornado had smacked the top of his head with his sheath. Michael looked at him dazed and shocked.

"You're an angel right," Tornado asked him calmly. "What that guy did couldn't have been stopped by you. You seem like the type to beat yourself up over others getting hurt. You cannot be everywhere." Hilde looked at him and smiled.

"It's not your fault."

Michael looked at them and felt happy to have made such good friends.

"Thanks."

The pod stopped abruptly and everyone jerked forward.

"Are we there already?" Cannis said unbuckling the safety belt.

"Thank God," Michael said aloud. The bright blue light that lit up the pod was giving him a headache. The pod door opened and they stepped out.

"Hello officers," Michael said, "I just want to say that I had my seat belt on."

They were in a solid gray room with a computer terminal as the one that they had just came from except this one looked cleaner and was obviously still in use. Ten men identically dressed in black suits that had Tech City Police on their badges and written in yellow on their vests were pointing high tech looking gray guns at them. They each wore helmets with different numbers on them that covered their eyes and armored vests. Loud yells and noises rang out from the radios connected to their waists.

"Do not move," the officer whose helmet had the number five hundred sixty-seven on it ordered. "Give us your names and identification pass code."

"My name is Tornado, pass code three, zero, six, seven, nine, nine."

"My name is Cannis, pass code three, one, five, two, eight, two."

"What about you?" an officer said pointing his weapon at Michael, "What is your name and pass code?"

"My name is St. Michael and my pass code is zero, ten." The officer slanted his head at him as though he was trying to figure out if he was joking. One of the other officers pulled out a PDA and started checking their identities. He looked up when he was finished then motioned to the officer that was asking all the questions to come closer. He whispered something into the officer's ear.

"Alright all of you are clear," said the five sixty-seven officer. He picked up the radio off his waist and spoke into it.

"Five eighty-three," he spoke into it, "We have some lost guests down here."

"Lost guest are the least of our worries, Five sixty-seven," a voice yelled back. "We need you up here pronto. We have a _big_ problem." A loud sound that sounded like thunder was in the background and they felt tremors from something above them.

"All right people let's move," Five sixty-seven told the other officers then looked at

them. "You guys need to follow us."

They ran out of the room into a hallway that ended at an elevator. It was not big enough for all of them so a group of seven officers went in first. Then when the elevator came back, they all got in with three officers. There was a jazz style song coming from the speaker in the elevators' ceiling.

"Ah, you can count on elevator music to stay the same no matter what else changes," Michael said then laughed tapping his feet to the beat. It only took a minute to get to the top. When they first got in the floor, they were on said S. Fifty and now it said S. Two. The doors opened and the scene they saw was horrible. Cannis turned away and buried her face into Tornado's shoulder. On the floor in front of them were the bodies of the men who came before them. They were out cold but not one of them had a bullet hole. Michael picked up a rubber bullet off the floor. They were two-stories off the ground. Broken glass from the windows covered the floor and bullet holes filled the cheap plywood walls. Desert wind blew into the building allowing them to feel the dry desert air.

"Who could have done this," one of the officers said. There was movement outside the building. It was something large. They scattered overturning furniture and hiding behind metal desks and cabinets.

"Hilde can you see what's out there," Tornado asked her while hiding behind a table. Hilde turned looking outside and her eyes moved from one side of the building to the other.

"Hilde can't see anything they must be jamming Hilde's sensors," Hilde cried. Outside there was the sound of jet engines and quick movement. Gunfire poured down upon them. Michael stood up.

"Are you trying to die," an officer yelled.

"Flame barrier," Michael yelled. A clear red barrier appeared around them protecting them from the bullets. The bullets would get close to the barrier and melt in front it. Michael could see what looked like a giant ten story tall robot outside the window. It was black with red eyes and a giant scythe. Its chest was open and it was shooting from two chain Gatling guns.

"That's R.F.R prototype Grim Reaper," Five sixty-seven yelled to him.

"R.F.R. isn't that the Robot Wars new type of robot?" Tornado asked.

"Yes but it's still in its testing phase," Five sixty-seven answered.

"Giant armed robots," Michael said shaking his head, "great I'm dealing with a real life Gund . . ." A giant blue hand bursting through the building wall cut off Michael. The hand went back outside, pulling out a piece of the wall with it and then they saw a robotic face look through the hole. This robot was entirely blue except for a white facemask.

"That's the Blue Destroyer," an officer yelled out.

The bullets stopped and the Grim Reaper stepped back. Michael took this opportunity to run and jump out the window. He landed two stories down in sand. The ground around the building had less sand, which meant they were away from the main part of the desert and close to Tech City. The Blue Destroyer started firing rubber bullets at him and Michael created another fire barrier around himself. The bullets stopped and then Michael heard a computer voice come from both of the robots that sent shivers down his spine.

"_Target showing no response from stunning ammunition. Switching to live ammo and assault techniques."_

"We have to get down there and help him," Cannis shouted to the others, "He's going to get himself killed." Cannis, Hilde, and Tornado jumped down to help Michael. When they reached the ground and looked up at the robots. They felt like ants.

"Fire rockets," Michael shouted and sent twelve rockets into the Blue Destroyers face. The robot paused for a moment and then started firing bullets again. Both robots were firing rounds still at Michael and he was running and dodging for his life.

"Chi wave," Tornado yelled and a wave of white energy came from off his sword and cut into the metal leg of the Grim Reaper. The robot looked down at Tornado and lifted its foot up to step on him. A giant sized shadow swept over the three of them and the foot came down. Hilde grabbed its foot and stopped it from coming down.

"Run Master," Hilde said while straining to hold the foot. Her right arm started to send out sparks. Michael saw what was happening and flew up into the air dodging the Blue Destroyer's guns. His wings lit up in flames and then the flames moved and went into his body as though a force had sucked them in. Michael pulled his arm back and a large flame surrounded it.

"Fire rocket level two, three rockets," he shouted while he punched forward. Three large fire rockets made of white fire shot out and hit the Grim Reaper in its chest sending it tumbling backwards.

"Thanks Archangel dude," Hilde shouted to him. Cannis not wanting Hilde to show her up took her heavy double flat blade staff and threw it with all her might. It flew right into the Blue Destroyer's chest destroying one of the Gatling guns, which exploded and caused the other to explode. The Grim Reaper started to get back up.

"Everyone, get on top of the Grim Reaper before it gets back up," Tornado shouted. The four of them ran and leaped onto the Grim Reaper. Michael stood on its shoulder, Hilde held onto an arm, and Tornado and Cannis its waist. The Blue Destroyer pulled out a sword that looked as though it was made of laser beams. It sliced at them and cut the Grim Reaper in half. They jumped off before the robot started to explode. Hilde was holding Tornado and Cannis as jets from her back and her boots helped her land on the ground.

"Thank you for flying Air Hilde," she said as she set them down onto the ground. There were cheers coming from the building as some of the officers had awakened from the paralysis causing bullets. The Blue Destroyer started to attack with its sword. It stabbed the ground quickly forcing them to dodge and jump around giving them no time to launch a counterattack.

"How do we stop this crazy thing," Cannis yelled to the others. Michael thought and thought but nothing in his arsenal of moves could stop this. Then an idea hit him.

"Tornado let me borrow your sword," Michael asked him while jumping backwards to avoid the giant beam sword.

"Here don't break it," Tornado said throwing it to him. Michael caught the sword and looked at it. If it could channel chi then it should be able to channel his flames. He concentrated on the sword and the blade turned red instead of blue and burst into flames. The robot went to stab at them with the sword again and Michael stopped the beam sword with his flaming sword. He put all his strength into keeping himself from becoming a pancake. His feet started to sink into the ground and his legs began to buckle. Tornado ran up to him and grabbed the lower part of the swords handle and the flame turned blue. The beam sword was starting to spark from overheating. Hilde grabbed Michael's hands and supported him with her strength. Cannis did the same with Tornado's hands. The sword started to spark more and more. Michael and Tornado yelled out as if to call forth all their strength. The blue flame around the sword grew bigger. The beam sword surged with energy and then broke apart. They all fell to the ground exhausted and the Blue Destroyer picked them up in its hand and started to crush them. It seemed like the end for them.

A large bolt of lightning came out of the clear blue sky and struck the robot burning a hole through its head. The robot let go of them letting them fall to the ground. Michael released his wings and grabbed onto Tornado and Cannis. Hilde tried to activate her jets but MALFUNCTION kept appearing in her eyes. She fell to the ground with a loud crash.

"HILDE, NO" Tornado yelled. When Michael put them down him and Cannis ran over to her quickly and got on their knees to look her over. Hilde's right arm was broken in half and spitting sparks. Her glowing blue eyes were not glowing anymore. Tornado repeatedly called her name trying to get her to wake up or move. Tears spilled down Cannis' face onto Hilde's cheeks. Michael was looking into the distance as something was coming toward them quickly and dust was billowing behind it. Michael smiled.

"Don't worry someone that can fix her is coming this way," he assured them. Tornado looked up hopefully. The thing in the distance came into clear view after three seconds. It was a person who was running so fast that they looked like a blur. Two seconds later that blur slammed into Michael causing him to tumble while holding onto him. After they had rolled five times, they stopped and Tornado and Cannis saw who had hit him. They immediately got on one knee and bowed their head. A female teenager that looked the same age as Michael with flaming red hair was the cause. She had peach skin with freckles on her cheeks. Her eyes were bright yellow and matched her shirt that had a golden badge on it. She wore blue jeans and red gloves with flat metal knuckle covers. She sat with her knees on Michael's stomach and her arms holding his shoulders. She had a large beautiful smile on her face.

"Hi Kim," Michael said calmly.

"You made it," Kim responded excitedly while shaking his shoulders, "It's been so long."

"Commander Kim," Five sixty-seven said while saluting to Kim the other officers stood in an about face position in the background. Kim stood up quickly her and her entire personality seemed to change. She carried herself stiffly and her face changed from a smile to being serious quickly.

"What happened here Five sixty seven," she said sternly.

"Two R.F.R's malfunction and started to attack_, _Sir," he began, "half the unit was taken down by stunning ammunition. These four tried to stop it when it changed to live ammunition and weapons." He gestured at Michael and the others. "They defeated the Grim Reaper and held off the Blue Destroyer until you finished it. In the process their friend was injured." Kim looked over at Hilde.

"I want this place cleaned up, a full written report, and all the data, with their motherboards on my desk by tomorrow," Kim told him. He and the officers fell out of line and started to get to work. Kim walked up to Tornado, Cannis, and Hilde.

"You don't have to get on your knees," she said kindly, "Your bounty hunters right." They nodded to her in surprise. "Any friend of Michael's is a friend of mine. It is nice to meet you Cannis and Tornado." They looked at her shocked.

"How did you know who we are?" Cannis asked her impressed.

"I have on contacts that link me to the main frame of Tech City. I can find out anything in Silicon Country's network." Michael walked over to join them and watch Kim as she kneeled down to look over Hilde.

"This is Doctor Curtis's daughter," she told them. She sounded surprised and sad at the same time. "The doctor disappeared years ago when I was still a lieutenant. The strange thing about the case was that the video and audio recording equipment was all-blank. In addition, the lack of bodies seemed to rule out murder. Poor child, where was she?"

"She was in a tube in the lab," Michael told her. Kim pulled out a screwdriver, which opened up into many different tools, and within two minutes she had Hilde looking as good as she originally was. Hilde's eyes started to glow again and she looked at Tornado and Cannis who were standing over her.

"Why is Dog crying?" she asked curiously.

"I told you not to call me that," Cannis said smiling while tears ran down her face.

"Master Tornado looks like he was worried about Hilde," she said looking at Tornado. "No worries, Hilde won't make Tornado worry again."

"Hilde you said my name," Tornado said shocked.

"Of course I did, Master Tornado," she replied. Hilde got back on her feet and turned to face Kim.

"You are the person who fixed Hilde, right," she asked.

"Yes I am," Kim answered her politely. Hilde walked up and hugged her.

"Thank You, Hilde is forever in your debt," she said happily. Kim walked away from them and Michael followed. She went back to being relaxed around him as they walked side by side.

"You haven't even made it to Tech City and your already involved with something," she said laughing, "so where's your team." Michael explained to her about the sand nomads and becoming separated from them. How he had met the bounty hunters and resisted. Then he told her about finding Hilde and her memory. Kim shook her head when he told her about Dr. Curtis' death happening right in front of Hilde.

"So it's gotten as bad as the letter you sent by fire rocket warned it could get," Kim said while rubbing her fingers through her hair. "I'll help you see this through and since Tech City is the next target you'll need the help of the Guardian of Lightening and Electricity."

"Thanks Kim," Michael told her while feeling grateful that he had such good friends.

"Oh yeah, I got a surprise for you," Kim said full of excitement, "I know some people that can help locate your friends if they were taken underground. You'll be excited to meet them." Michael looked confused, which made Kim laugh. "I'll order us a transit unit right now so we can meet them." Michael looked up at the sky and in the distance could see large black clouds.

"Yeah, it seems like a storm is coming this way," Michael told her. They walked back over to the others. Tornado put his hand over his eyes and looked into the distance.

"You can see the wall surrounding Tech City from here," he told them. Michael squinted and could see a black wall in the distance. That wall protected Tech City from the desert's weather. A large black ship ten times the size of Tornado's X-Unit ship flew over their head and cast a large shadow over the area. It landed fifty feet away from where they were standing. A door slid open and a long metal staircase dropped down from the side of the ship. A troop of officers marched down the stairs and formed two lines, making a pathway to the ship. Michael, Kim, Tornado, Cannis, and Hilde walked between the officers and up the stairs. Before he walked through the door, Michael looked back into the desert.

"I will find you guys," Michael said to himself confidently. He walked into the ship and his mouth dropped open. The inside was like a giant building. The room he was standing in could hold a football stadium possibly two. There were desks and computers with hundreds of officers working. Giant flat screen LCD monitors and TVs built into the walls it looked like the whole of Silicon Country monitored from it. Michael looked around and saw video from cameras on street corners, in banks, on the highway, in elevators, restaurants, hotels, malls, and even in sewers. The closest thing that he had ever seen to this ship was the pentagon, but this tech was way beyond theirs. He caught sound coming from some of the screens as he followed Kim through the center of it all. He heard a woman talking to another woman about clothes, two bankers talking about stocks, and he even heard and saw two old guys whistle and comment on a pretty woman that crossed by. The men around that monitor started to laugh, but one glance from Kim made them hurry back to their work. They followed Kim into a round room that had seven comfortable looking black leather chairs in it; it also had a refrigerator, and a theater size TV screen.

"Is there anything I can get for you Michael?" Kim asked Michael politely.

"Yes, what kind of food do they have on this thing?" Michael said starved. It had been awhile since he had eaten and he felt he could eat an entire cow.

"Anything you want we can get if for you," Kim answered him with a large smile on her face. Michael looked at Kim strangely. Kim was a nice person but not this nice and she was very sarcastic. Michael could not help feel that there was something off with this Kim. Sure, he had not seen her in that long but it was as if her personality was a slightly different.

"So you've been promoted to commander since I've been away," Michael said casually.

"Yes, that's why we get to travel around in the Mobile Defense Base," Kim responded happily. Michael looked at her hard, something just did not seem right.

"You know Kim, I was wondering if I could get a kiss from you," Michael asked her his face a little red. Kim nodded and walked over to him then leaned forward. Michael stood up quickly, grabbed her arms, swung her around, and put his hand, which was on fire at her throat.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tornado yelled at him pulling out his sword. Cannis stood up quickly as well.

"She's the commander. Are you out of her mind?" She shouted at him.

"This is not Kim Sparks," Michael told them and then asked Kim, "Where is Kim at?"

"I am Kim Sparks," she said pleading with him. Michael got angrier and his eyes narrowed.

"I'm going to ask you again," he said in a low angry tone, "Where is Kim Sparks?"

"Calm down, Michael and don't get your feathers all ruffled," a voice came from behind him. The TV screen behind him had come on and Kim's face was on it. Tornado and Cannis looked back and forth from the Kim on TV and the one in front of them.

"The next time you send a doll to come get me," Michael said while letting go of the robot, "please inform me that it's not you."

"So if you didn't know me well, she could pass for me, right," Kim asked Michael who sat down in the chair feeling relieved at the fact that Kim was ok. Tornado and Cannis sat down too. Hilde just stayed calm through the whole ordeal.

"Did you know about her being a robot, Hilde?" Cannis asked her curious to why she did not react.

"Hilde scanned her body and found out when she fixed me," Hilde told them. Michael sighed.

"You can take the girl out of the lab and give her a high-ranking title and she'll build a new lab around her," Michael said as he shook his head.

"I know you're not talking Mr. I don't want to stay in one place and settle down, The world needs me to always save it," Kim said as she rolled her eyes. Tornado leaned over close to Cannis.

"Those two definitely used to go out," he told her chuckling.

"What's that have to do with anything?" They said in unison looking at him crazily.

"By the way if you look outside the windows, you'll notice you're about to enter the wall," Kim informed them. Hilde got up, walked over to a closed plastic covering with a lip, and lifted it up. Light poured inside the room and they could see the giant wall that stretched as far as the eye can see it was four times the height of the ship and a large, tinted plastic-like dome was covering the city itself. Michael felt some relief in his heart; he had made it, now if only he could find the others. Two large doors in the iron wall opened up and the ship flew slowly through the doors. Kim looked at them all from the screen and said in a kind voice.

"Welcome to Tech City."

The Guardians

Magic

**By: Michael Phoenix**

The Guardians: Magic is about a drastic change in the world after a young boy's wish. The world becomes like the books he read along with his father. Some people of the world gain powers and the abilities of Magic, others the live in a futuristic world with flying cars and robots, a part of the world is full of superheroes and villains, and the last part is an underwater city. The Guardians a group of heroes from before the change must stop a new threat in this world. A powerful foe that is searching for the device that granted the boy's wish.


End file.
